Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways review – a high-concept tour with middling music

Those horrified by the thought of seeing “Foo Fighters” and “high concept” in the same sentence might want to look away now: for their eighth album, Foo Fighters have gone high concept. Sonic Highways sees Dave Grohl’s band set up shop in eight different US cities in order to write a song in each, then film the results for an HBO series of the same name. All of the cities the band chose – from Washington and Chicago to New Orleans and Nashville – have fascinating musical stories, and they’re told brilliantly through the medium of TV interviews with the likes of Buddy Guy and Steve Albini. Sadly, said stories are not quite as fascinating when told through the medium of the music of Foo Fighters. It’s not that the band have ignored their own concept; Rick Nielsen from Chicago rockers Cheap Trick solos away on Something From Nothing, for instance. But there’s no denying that, somewhere in the mix, the great diversity of American rock music lost out to the trademark, blustery Foo Fighters sound.