Foo Fighters, Wembley Arena, London

Yes, there is life after Nirvana

Dave Grohl may have provided the heartbeat of one of the year's finest albums, but enough of his extracurricular work as drummer for Queens of the Stone Age. This evening he's back in his main role, fronting the much-loved Foo Fighters. What started out as an impromptu, solo project by a man with time on his hands and a desperate need to clear his head after the demise of his bandmate Kurt Cobain has developed, over seven years, into a hugely popular band, the default choice for the "grunger" youths who infest the nation's schools.

And, as a friend of mine whose job is unboring bored teenagers confirms, many of them don't even realise that Grohl was a member of Nirvana. Generally regarded as the exception to the cliché about nice guys finishing last, even by people who aren't very nice, Grohl learnt more than simply how to construct catchy, edgy pop songs in his time behind the kit. Though he works within the music business's corporate parameters – headlining huge venues; making imaginatively daft videos – he manages it with a modicum of dignity. In short, he seems to be enjoying himself.

Perhaps that's why the atmosphere inside this hideous barn is so warm from the off. As the band kick off behind a huge curtain with their recent hit "All My Life", the reception is simply rapturous, thousands of heads bobbing like an animated version of Antony Gormley's Field for the British Isles, most of them mouthing the lyrics.

It's a greatest-hits set in the main, though there's plenty of material from the current album, One by One. The excellent "Low" looks set to take Sonic Youth's long-patented harsh pop sound into the charts before the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can manage the trick, and Grohl proudly introduces the insanely catchy "Times like These" as "the bestest song we've ever written". Yet this blend of The Cult's pre-metal thump and Hüsker Dü's punk-pop fire admits to its influences. The lyrics even slip in the phrase "new day rising", after one of the Dü's classics that presumably soundtracked the 33-year-old's youth.

The continuity with the Eighties underground is deliberate. The stage backdrops and sleeve of the new record feature paintings by Raymond Pettibon, now the subject of gallery retrospectives yet an artist who came to prominence as the brains behind Black Flag's influential graphic style.

The night's highlight is an extended "Monkey Wrench", during which Grohl wanders off into the stands, still playing and still grinning. The set-closer, "Everlong", disappoints, as the usually impeccable drummer, Taylor Hawkins, for once fails to lift the choruses, but encores including the singalongs of "Breakout" and the Foos' 1995 debut single, "This is a Call", lift the mood.

Cobain's suicide note referred to how inadequate he felt in comparison with Freddie Mercury's showmanship. Grohl just makes records with Brian May. Foo Fighters never were life-changing, but on this form they're life-enhancing, which possibly counts for more.