Rock n Coasters

Robert and Michele Forto recap the Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on September 26, 2026, the final night of the Take Cover stadium run.

Dave Grohl told the room it was one of the largest shows he's ever played in this city. The football palace was stacked. Foo Fighters played almost three hours.

Gouge Away opened at 5:30. Queens of the Stone Age hit at 6:35 and did the job: loud enough that the stadium shrank. No Them Crooked Vultures cameo. Then the Foos at 8:10.

Before the doors opened, they asked three questions. Does All My Life still start the sprint? Does the stadium sing My Hero and Best of You like it means it? Does Everlong still end it? Yes. Yes. And yes.

The first hour was the reason people buy stadium tickets: All My Life, The Pretender, Times Like These, Rope, Stacked Actors, My Hero into Learn to Fly, then These Days, Walk, and This Is a Call. No Son of Mine slid into Motörhead’s Ace of Spades.

On the B-stage they played Wheels and Marigold. Dave dedicated Marigold to Krist Novoselic, who was in the building ahead of an MTV Vanguard Award, and joked they would be the oldest people in that room except Madonna. Big Me brought Mentos onstage. Under You was the Kurt moment they called in the pre-show.

Then the Take Cover trick: the first-band intro run, Invincible, Seven, One Headlight, Manimal, Tap Dancing in a Minefield, with Dave on the kit and Ilan Rubin shredding guitar. Michele’s line: close your eyes, and you know you are at a Foo show, but it is heavier now. Rubin is not Taylor. He does not have to be.

Monkey Wrench. Best of You. Run. They closed with Exhausted, a song they used to end nights with, then Everlong. Two hours and fifty-five minutes.

Godsmack on Thursday. Foo Fighters on Saturday. Next Vegas trip: Metallica at the Sphere.

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Robert and Michele Forto record in Las Vegas on September 26, 2026, before walking into Allegiant Stadium for the final night of the Foo Fighters Take Cover stadium tour.

They landed from Seattle the night before, hit the Strip, ate Crack Shack chicken, and survived Robert’s pick for Vegas's most dangerous bar: the Sugar Factory. Two nights earlier they were in the White River lot for Godsmack. This is a different room: a football stadium, an early 5:30 start, clear bags, cashless, and a three-hour Dave Grohl sprint.

Take Cover is a 12-city stadium run. Vegas is the closer. Queens of the Stone Age are direct support. Foo Fighters take the rest of the night. Reviews all year say the same thing: they open like a punch, usually All My Life, and they close with Everlong. In the middle: hits, deep cuts, songs from Your Favorite Toy, a cover run from everybody’s old bands, and Dave on the kit.

Ilan Rubin is in Taylor Hawkins’ seat. Taylor will be in the building whether anyone says his name. So will Kurt if they play Under You. Michele calls Foo her favorite band. Robert put Foo Fighters lyrics in his doctoral dissertation, plus Metallica, Godsmack, and Wide World of Sports.

Before the gates, they lock in three tests: Does All My Life still start the sprint? Does the stadium sing "My Hero" and "Best of You" as it means it? Does Everlong still end a night that started with fried chicken and bad decisions on the Strip?

The band just closed Bourbon & Beyond. Next up: whether a stadium Foo Fighters closer fits next to the festival nights and the nearly 20 Foo shows they have already seen.

Show notes: Disgraceland with Jake Brennan, the Taylor Hawkins episode.

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Robert and Michele Forto recap Godsmack, Stone Temple Pilots, and Dorothy at White River Amphitheater in Auburn, Washington, on September 24, 2026.

Before the show, they asked whether this night would sit next to Red Rocks 2000 or just be another stamp. After almost two hours of Godsmack, they have an answer.

Dorothy opened for 45 minutes and started the night instead of holding space. Stone Temple Pilots played the hits. Jeff Gutt did the job. He does not have Scott Weiland’s swagger. The songs still work. The danger does not.

Godsmack opened with Surrender and stayed locked in. Sully Erna and Robbie Merrill are still the spine. Sam Koltun and Mike Mangini did not look like hired guns. Sam’s stage presence and the Joe Walsh cover of Rocky Mountain Way were a mid-set highlight. The drum battle still owned the room. Voodoo still owned the room. Under Your Scars still stopped a packed amphitheater, this time acoustic, Sully and Sam, not the piano version.

They talk about the pawn-shop Strat Sully used to write the first album, the kids Sully pulled onstage, including a three-year-old with a Barbie, the phones-down speech, and Sully saying new music is coming in 2027.

This was not a festival slice. It was Dorothy, STP, then a headliner set. White River now sits on the same list as Louder Than Life, Aftershock, Rockville, Anchorage, and that first Red Rocks birthday night in 2000.

1,463 air miles. Another 20 on the ground. Two hours to the hotel after. Still worth it. Next stop: Foo Fighters at Allegiant Stadium.

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obert and Michele Forto record from the parking lot at White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington, on September 24, 2026, before walking in for Godsmack, Stone Temple Pilots, and Dorothy on the Rise of Rock tour.

This is not just another date on the calendar. Godsmack was Michele’s first hard rock concert and the first show she and Robert saw together — Red Rocks, Denver, 2000, on her 28th birthday at the KBPI Birthday Bash. They have seen the band more than a dozen times since, including Louder Than Life, Aftershock, Rockville, arenas around the country, and a rare night in Anchorage.

They talk about the night a Louder Than Life rainout sent them from Louisville to Peoria the next day, the first time they saw Shinedown, and what they want from a three-act amphitheater bill instead of a festival sprint. Sully Erna and Robbie Merrill are still here. Tony Rombola and Shannon Larkin are not. Sam Koltun is on guitar. Mike Mangini, formerly of Dream Theater, is on drums.

Before the gates, they lock in three tests for the new lineup: urgency or autopilot, whether Voodoo and the drum battle still own the room, and whether Under Your Scars still stops the lawn before Bulletproof and I Stand Alone.

Recorded on site at White River Amphitheater. Post-show recap coming after the last song.

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Join hosts Robert and Michele Forto as the record live from outside of Lumen Field in Seattle Washington at the Metallica double-header weekend.

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