Bands come and go. Whole musical genres come and go. And often in the rock 'n' roll arena, the dinosaurs are the only ones you can count on. Consequently, rock music - big rock music - has become somewhat of an antiquated notion. Yet throughout the constant shift in tastes, the Foo Fighters have remained true. The band rolls autonomously, and yet is wildly successful, as proven by concert attendance figures, album sales, its often hysterical music videos, Grammys, and the release of its latest disc, "Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace."

The Foo Fighters seem simultaneously influenced by everyone and no one. All the volume, hooks, and attitude that flash the classic rock badge are there, yet the quartet is un-swayed in the musical trend department. An enviable place to be; rock 'n' roll played on the band's own terms.

The band plays Blue Cross Arena this week. Guitarist Chris Shiflett called in. We kibitzed. An edited transcript follows.

CITY: I've been listening to the album all morning

Chris Shiflett: Great I'm gonna quiz you. Hum the melody to the bridge on track six.

While working on this album, when did the potential hits begin to surface?

When "The Pretender" came together, because when it started out it was totally different; it was half time, a totally different vibe to it. And when it came together in its present state, it was like "Oh, that's pretty catchy." I think when you make a record, the singles kind of do jump out at you. I remember they were talking about "Let It Die" being the first single, and I though that was pretty great because it's a pretty unconventional arrangement for a song that would be a single.

Foo Fighter fans would've gone for it.

Well, I hope so. I think Foo Fighters has always kind of been its own thing.

Yeah, its own kind of thing that played in front of 85,000 fans in Hyde Park. How the hell do you top that?

Well, we actually topped it and played two nights at Wembley to 86,000 people each night.

And how do you top that?

That's what we were talking about afterward. How do you top that? I don't know if we can. Maybe that was the pinnacle right there. And if it is, that's a pretty good pinnacle to reach. That's up to our manager to figure out. We can't think about that. Someone's just going to have to build a bigger stadium.

Foo Fighter arena?

There you go. I'm with it.

For some reason I still consider Foo Fighters a new band.

Well, I still think of myself as the new guy, and I've been here nine years. Foo Fighters have been successful from the get-go, but it's been a slow build through the years. It didn't just happen over night

You guys emerged from the late 90's, yet have managed to not sound like a band from that era. How?

That's a good question. It's interesting, because the Foo Fighters are just a kind of straight-ahead rock band, and when I first joined the band the music world was in the throes of techno stuff... the Prodigy era was waning, and the Limp Bizkit era was really happening.

The dark ages.

Yeah. So when I joined the band, we'd play these festivals and all the bands would have DJs; it was that rap-rock thing. Then that went out of being the flavor of the month, then there was the garage rock moment with The Strokes and The Hives and The Vines. And we'd go play festivals and it would be all those bands and we stuck out. You know, we always stuck out.

So you rolled through unfazed.

I don't know how. I think we're just lucky.

Well, you never copped to any of those monthly flavors.

 Yeah, I think that's how we've managed to live through it all. We never added a DJ and [bassist] Nate [Mendell] never rapped on a Foo Fighters song or anything.

Pretty much all of you guys have side bands as well. Are those there for identity, safety, or sanity?

A little bit of all of the above. It's just good to get out and play with other people. It definitely helps you appreciate what we've got in the Foo Fighters. I go out on the Jackson tours and play in little bars where there're a hundred people there, and they don't really know your songs, and it's difficult but really rewarding and fun. But then you go back out on a Foo Fighter tour and play to 10,000 people that sing along to every word.

Or 86,000

Right. And it's like, "Whoa, this is pretty special."

How have softer tunes like "Come Alive" and "Stranger Things Have Happened" been received?

We have never played them, so they have not been received. Basically the set list sorta builds with every album, and you pick a few songs off your current album and try to fit them into your set. The set these days is pretty long. It tends to be over two hours and it's full of a little bit off each record.

The kids, they  wanna hear the hits.

I know when I go see a band play live, I don't really want to see them play the majority of stuff from their new record. And when you go out and do these big shows there's a certain responsibility there to do that and put on a good show. We probably won't get into too many deep cuts off the new record... but if you make a really nice sign and hold it up, make sure you're up front and Dave [Grohl] sees it, it's anybody's guess.

By the time a lot of bands release an album, they're already onto the next project. What's incubating in your heads now? Or are you more in the moment?

Funny you should ask, because Dave has a lot of new material and we've jammed on a bunch of it at sound check. I don't see us making an album real soon, but you never know. Dave could be at home, get bored and want to jump into it.

Echoes sure, but do you really have silence, patience, and grace? What's the title about?

It's definitely not describing our show.

Foo Fighters

Blue Cross Arena, 1 War Memorial Sq

Monday, July 28

7 p.m. | $40-$46.50 | 232-1900