They starred in a documentary, parodied the pig blood scene from "Carrie" for their ALS "Ice Bucket Challenge," and created their own HBO series called "Sonic Highways" to explore famous American recording studios and expound on their newest album. They might be cinematic, but it's the Foo Fighters' music that has kept fans enthralled in the 20 years since frontman Dave Grohl released the band's self-titled debut album in 1995. To date, the band has released eight full-length albums and won four Grammy Awards in the "Best Rock Album" category.
With a robust catalogue of original songs and a penchant for covers (including Prince's "Darling Nikki"), a Foo Fighters' setlist can take countless directions. The charts below track the changing setlist position and frequency of play for "Everlong," "I'll Stick Around," and "My Hero" since 1995. The charts include data from Foo Fighters setlists with at least four songs Setlist.fm, a crowdsourced setlist database, from 1995 through the Oct. 24, 2014 Black Cat show in Washington, D.C.
Song Position
The chart below shows how the band's setlists have evolved over time. "Everlong" has always been played towards the end of a show, but in recent years it has been showing up later and later. Meanwhile, two other hits, "My Hero" and "I'll Stick Around," were both more likely to appear late in shows when the band debuted them, but they have been drifting earlier and earlier as the band has aged. On this chart, a position in the 0.1 percent to 33.3 percent range is in the beginning of the set, 33.3 percent to 66.6 percent is the middle of the set, and 66.6 percent to 100 percent is the end of the set. For example, if Everlong was played third at a show with 10 songs, it would be placed at 30 percent. Note: a zero percent on this graphic means the song was not played at all that year.
Frequency of Play
Since it's debut in 1997, "Everlong" has been a mainstay of Foo Fighters shows; in only one year, 2009, has it been played at less than 75 percent of shows -- and in six of those years it was played at every show. But other hits have burned out faster. "I'll Stick Around" was played at the vast majority of shows from 1995 to 2001. It has appeared only sporadically since then. "My Hero," meanwhile started out slow, before becoming a strong mainstay of Foo Fighters' setlists since 2000.