The number of rock drummers who've realised they were destined for headier things at the front of the stage can be counted on two fingers: Phil Collins and Dave Grohl. But while Collins is an international brand in his own right, Grohl's name will forever be appended with the words "formerly of Nirvana". Although he's been singing and playing guitar with the Foo Fighters since 1995 - nearly as long as his time with Nirvana - he's yet to produce that distinctive album that makes you forget his pedigree. Luckily for him, a good third of the people flailing around the moshpit on Thursday were too young to remember his previous incarnation, which may be what he's counting on.

That said, the Foos were engaging enough for their hour or so onstage. With three LPs, including the new, highly rated, There is Nothing Left to Lose, under their saggy belts, there was no shortage of really loud punk numbers and really quiet bluesy ones. And if that sounds reductive, well, they are.

That's the consequence of a drummer taking the reins - deprived of things to hit, Grohl stripped guitar-rock to the basics in a way more reminiscent of the mysteriously huge Offspring than of his old band.

There was enough melody punching its way through the likes of Learn to Fly, though, to to impart a bit of character. Grohl was confident enough about his guitar skills to show them off in a couple of blues solos, and sang serviceably.

Yet the Foo Fighters' debt to times past was recognised in his proclamation: "It might be the millennium, but Seattle is forever, and grunge will never die." Not true, actually; grunge is very dead, and Grohl has moved back to his home state of Virginia. What he meant was that his presence here in Brixton in front of 4,000 foaming teens owed everything to his having been in the right place at the right time a decade ago. But as his former group once said: oh, well, whatever, never mind.

***** Unmissable **** Recommended *** Enjoyable ** Mediocre * Terrible