The Foo Fighters (Molson Ampitheatre, August 13)

Before he sprouted whiskers a few years ago, Dave Grohl looked almost exactly like a guy I went to high school with. I doubt this makes me particularly unique. A lot of people probably went to school with a guy who looks like Dave Grohl. And that, one suspects, is a big part of Grohl's success.

The Foo Fighters frontman has always maintained an underdog status we can't help but love him for. You'd think that would've faded a bit over the past decade, amidst the Foos' evolution from a curiosity rising from Nirvana's ashes - driven by the drummer, always a fun guy to root for - to one of the world's biggest bands. But somehow, Grohl has become even more of an Everyman, responding to each chart-topping single or sold-out venue with the unabashed glee of a guy who still can't believe he's hit the big-time.

That Grohl is now widely recognized by everyone this side of Courtney Love as the cuddliest guy in rock could work against him. After all, it's not as though he's some bashful singer-songwriter looking to win over rooms of skinny indie kids with a bit of self-effacing charm; as the leader of a straight-ahead, post-grunge hard-rock band, he has to give all the drunken frat boys, tattooed metal-heads and greying bearers of Rolling Stones concert T-shirts a bit of the edge they're looking for. But as he demonstrated at Saturday night's sold-out show at the Molson Ampitheatre - the Foos' biggest headlining gig to date, or so he claimed - Grohl is more than up to the challenge.

The last stop on a cross-Canada jaunt supported by Sloan and the Constantines wasn't going to live up to the standard set by the Foos' intimate one-off effort at Lee's Palace earlier this summer. But operating within the limitations of stadium rock, the California quartet couldn't have fared much better. Entirely bypassing the acoustic half of this year's double album, In Your Honor, Grohl worked the cluttered stage like a pro as the band tore through its catalogue, throwing in a few offerings from In Your Honor's plugged-in disc without depriving the faithful of stand-bys running the gamut from 1995's This Is a Call to 2002's Times Like These - one of the night's standouts, even if its intro still sounds a little too much like The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary.

That the newest songs stacked up well against earlier material - with In Your Honor's title track, lead single Best of You, DOA, The Last Song and End Over End all deservedly receiving rapturous responses - speaks well for Grohl's continuously evolving songwriting skills. And owing to some sort of biological curiosity that's kept his vocal cords operational, Grohl's trademark screaming delivery allows him to sell each song well beyond its studio value. But with all that working for him - plus some nifty lights and a decent sound mix - it was still Grohl's aw-shucks charm that sealed the deal.

There's a reason cynical critics and industry types sit alongside the fist-pumping masses at Foo Fighters shows (albeit safely back from the sweaty teens in the mosh pit): The gum-chewing, beer-belching front man introducing each new song by telling his fans to "check this shit out" is completely irresistible. Rock clichés that would otherwise grate - imploring Toronto fans to outperform their counterparts in Vancouver, for instance - are much more forgivable when they come from a kid-in-a-candyshop front man who grins ear-to-ear as he giddily announces in the middle of his encore that he just played a guitar solo.

There are no pretensions with the Foos. No acoustic tours of concert halls to showcase In Your Honor's quieter half. No mid-set political speeches to follow up on Grohl's 2004 ride aboard the John Kerry bandwagon. And although the Foos are mostly a one-man show - with drummer Taylor Hawkins getting some fair second billing, but guitarist Chris Shiflett and bassist Nate Mendel on the periphery - Grohl somehow makes the whole thing seem as far from an ego trip as possible.

Is the live act a little unambitious next to the more diverse studio fare? Probably. But we're all so pleased to see that guy from high school doing so well, nobody's going to hold it against him.