All photos courtesy of Scott Harris

A few songs into Foo Fighters’ second night at New York’s Citi Field, as the band was wrapping up their mega-hit “Learn to Fly,” I overheard the gentlemen behind me lean across to his group of friends and exclaim, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

It’s true, nothing quite like this has been concocted in the annals of rock and roll. For a guy who rewrote the rules as one-third of Nirvana, he’s doing it yet again 20 years later as Dave Grohl glides back and forth on a rock and roll throne only possible within the realms of an oxycontin trip. Literally, that’s where it came from. Broken guitar necks sticking out by the dozens on each side of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, lights rimming the circular back that houses the Foo Fighters’ logo.

Grohl’s broken leg was simply just along for the ride, as he made clear from the opening notes of “Everlong,” wrestling with his signature Gibson guitar like it owed him money. The leg didn’t move for three and a half hours, roughly how long the band was on stage, but every other part of the frontman did. Violently.

The only time it felt like Grohl’s spastic body came to a halt was six songs in, as he sat, perched up in front of the stage, strumming the intro to “Big Me” while he recounted the story of his fateful fall in Sweden. The story was accompanied by pro-shot video of the fall on the jumbotron, followed by Grohl referring to his dislocated ankle as “soft serve ice cream.” A humorous break in what has surely been a less-than-ideal time in Fooville.

One of the most impressive aspects of the 27-song set (well, 24 if you don’t count the brief snippets of classic rock songs played during band introductions) was that the band never really missed a beat. One tightly-coiled rock song after another, blistering through the 40,000+ that looked on, following every order barked out by the man on the throne. “We’re going to make this feel like a club show,” Grohl said as he pointed at the upper deck crowd behind home plate.

“Tight” should be a demand of Foo Fighters at this point. Twenty years in, the sextet has made a habit of constructing a “show” and performing it at every stop. But on this night, it was the looser moments that turned heads – moments like the stripped down sing-along of “My Hero” and “Times Likes These,” or Grohl’s extended bluesy solo on the newer “Outside.” Mixing programmed with spontaneous, old with new, and covers with originals kept the crowd on edge the entire night.

The Foos even had time to welcome out Darryl Jenifer and Dr. Know of Bad Brains, a moment that Grohl proudly called the “fucking best” of his life. It’s moments and comments like this that lead to skepticism about Grohl’s authenticity. How can someone that mainstream be that cool? What does he have to prove? But as Grohl dethroned, grabbed a pair of crutches, and flanked his bandmates for one final bow, it felt like he had proven more than was ever necessary.

This tour, if anything, is proof that Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee will follow their leader anywhere. Throughout the Sonic Highways promotional cycle, Grohl’s fellow Foo Fighters preached trust in him, trusting the unique process that led to their eighth studio album. Now, they get to follow up on that talk as they travel, throne in tow for the time being, to some of the biggest venues in the world.

(Also worth noting: British rockers Royal Blood handled opening duties with absolute class and brilliance. As singer and bassist Mike Kerr stated, “We’re not used to playing in front of this many people, so bare with us.” Within three songs, they were fully comfortable rocking out to a stadium’s worth of people.)