It's crazy to imagine that 14 years ago, Dave Grohl, drummer for '90s grunge icons Nirvana, decided to carry on, pick up a guitar and start writing his own alt-rock tunes with the Foo Fighters. It's even crazier to imagine that Grohl's exercise in working out his Nirvana tendencies would turn into Grammy-winning modern rock staples while maintaining unwavering credibility that has gotten them asked to do tribute performances for The Who and sharing the stage with Led Zeppelin's own Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones at Wembley Stadium.

The Foo's stopped in KC to perform at Kemper Arena July 19 and brought a massive 120-minute plus rock show to a crowd hungry to be pummeled by the group's buff riffs and relentless energy.

As Grohl walked charistmatically on a ramp that jutted out into the center of the arena over the soft electric plucking of "Let It Die," one of harder highlights off of their new album, the energy was palpable. It felt like the calm before the storm, which was exactly what the audience got when the track built to it's aggressive later half only to be followed by a hair-slinging, non-stop four-punch combo of tracks with "The Pretender," "Times Like These," "No Way Back," and "Learn To Fly."

When Grohl finally conversed with the 10,000-plus crowd, he said he would play until the audience told they wanted to home and that they don't do the "little rock show."

Yeah, no kidding.

After a few more fast and loose tracks that included The Who's "Young Man Blues," the diesel-powered riff of "Stacked Actors" and a drum solo, Grohl, along with the Foo's and several additional players, strolled out to a stage that lowered in the center of the arena for an acoustic set, turning cheap seats into prime real estate.

The four Foo Fighters have added a violinist, keyboard player, former Foo member Pat Smear on rhythm guitar and an auxilary percussionist, who had the pleasure of a triangle solo. Grohl joked that every time they won a Grammy, they added another member.

Actually, Grohl joked most of the time. He's as charasmatic as they come and a big fan of the F-bomb, which he sprinkled liberally throughout his banter. He also isn't afraid to call people out, like a big guy in a bright yellow shirt with two brews that he compared to the little bee girl from the Blind Melon video "No Rain." The guy took it more as a badge of honor than an insult. The acoustic set featured some more obscure tracks like "Skin and Bones" and "Marigold" but also included the sing-along moments of the night with "My Hero" and Grohl's solo performance of "Everlong" that morphed into a full-band rock assault, allowing Grohl to make a mad dash back to stage wielding his guitar like a spear.

After two-more tracks produced ape-s**t reactions on the floor ("Monkey Wrench" and "All My Life"), the group went back stage to rest up for the assumed encore. They interacted with the crowd through a night vision camera projected on the four video screens, throwing up fingers to figure out how many songs the crowd wanted to hear. The band settled on three but played four, starting with a psychedelic-pop rendition of "Big Me" and ending with "Best of You," the only songs where it appeared that Grohl's voice showed the fatigue that caused the group to cancel their Red Rocks' performances earlier that week. The band left saying that they will wait less than five years to return. The crowd left thoroughly walloped. Everybody left satisfied after a performance that proved rock is best served big.