-A.S. If life was really Pulp Fiction, then Samuel L. Jackson would have to hand his wallet over to Dave Grohl. Even Zack let his hard on for David Byrne subside long enough to proclaim Grohl as the coolest man alive.

The Foo Fighters took the stage on time, and from the start let us know that they were ready for the responsibility of being the headliners of a festival. After opening with “All My Life,” “Times Like These” and “Learn to Fly” I was already on cloud nine. It is always amazing to me when a band can play so many poplular songs early on in an hour and forty-five mintue set and still keep you captivated and singing along the entire time.Dave Grohl is definitely the face of the franchise of my man crush team.

Zack had discussed whether they cover anything or not, and our question was answered when Grohl and company launched into the Who’s “Young Man Blues.” Drummer Taylor Hawkins ripped up a drum solo following “Let it Die.” While proving that the Foo Figthers are masters of ebb and flow of a set, they performed a stripped down version of “My Hero” with Grohl on acoustic guitar. By the end of the song, it still managed to rock hard.

Just when I started to think we had just about to hear it all, the Foo Fighters closed their set with a personal Guitar Hero favorite “Monkey Wrench” and “Pretender.” The latter proved just how good the band is at tension and release in a song. Grohl can set a crowd off with just one scream, and bring it back down with ease.

They left the stage, and Zack started talking about how none of the bands had taken an encore. I assured him that the Foo Fighters would. Earlier Grohl had told the audience that they would play until the cops came, and there was still almost 15 minutes left in their set at the time.To say the Foo Fighters are just Dave Grohl’s band would be a huge slight against Taylor Hawkins, whose incredible drumming and back up vocals comprise a big part of their sound.

Grohl told the crowd to relex, that he was going to start a little mellow since he’d been screaming his butt off the whole night. He brought out their strings player to sing back up with him on “Big Me.” Then he told us that they were going to play a song that we probably wouldn’t know, but that it was one of their favorites to play. “Aurora” brought the energy level back up a notch, and certainly rocked despite not being one of the hits.

“The Best of You” closed out our ACL, and sent us into the night with Foo Fighters songs stuck in my head. I’m pretty sure I sung parts of at least 5 different songs on our way back to the car. I am ready to proclaim this show as the best of the summer, taking a slight lead over Rage Against the Machine from Lollapalooza.

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