Foo Fighters Headline Mad Cool's 10th Anniversary in Madrid: A 31-Year Career Retrospective, Full 24-Song Setlist

Foo Fighters played Madrid's Mad Cool Festival in July 2026 to mark its 10th anniversary — the band's first appearance there since their previous Mad Cool set in 2017, nearly a decade earlier. Frontman Dave Grohl led the six-piece onto the stage through red pyro and smoke, opening with a three-song run of "All My Life," "The Pretender," and "Times Like These" that ignited the Spanish summer heat.

A 31-Year Retrospective, With Nothing From the New Album

Over two hours, Grohl made the set's old-school intent clear: all 24 songs came from the band's catalog spanning the '90s through the 2010s, with none pulled from 2025's new album, Your Favorite Toy. Even 2017's "The Sky Is a Neighborhood" landed with as much crowd noise as the band's earliest hits.

Midway through the show, Grohl handed the spotlight to each member to cover a song from their pre-Foo Fighters bands. The highlight of that stretch was Pat Smear taking on "Manimal," representing his roots in 1970s LA punk outfit the Germs. Grohl himself sang "Marigold" — originally released under Nirvana's name with Grohl on vocals — shifting the mood into something quieter and more reflective. "No Son of Mine" folded in a snippet of Motörhead's "Ace of Spades," while "Aurora" was dedicated on stage to drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022.

According to NME's on-site coverage (NME is Mad Cool's official media partner), Grohl told the crowd before the encore closed out: "Thank you for 31 years — you've made our lives beautiful."

Full Setlist

1. "All My Life"
2. "The Pretender"
3. "Times Like These"
4. "Rope"
5. "Stacked Actors"
6. "My Hero"
7. "Learn to Fly"
8. "These Days"
9. "Walk"
10. "This Is a Call"
11. "No Son of Mine" (with Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" excerpt)
12. "Wheels"
13. "Marigold"
14. "Big Me"
15. "La Dee Da"
16. "Run"
17. "Invincible" / "Seven" / "One Headlight" / "Manimal" / "Tap Dancing in a Minefield"
18. "Monkey Wrench"
19. "Breakout"
20. "The Sky Is a Neighborhood"
21. "Aurora"
22. "Best of You"
23. "Exhausted"