Foo Fighters are straight shooters in Indianapolis

Honesty proved to be an effective, entertaining policy for the Foo Fighters Thursday night at Klipsch Music Center.

Vocalist-guitarist Dave Grohl was honest when celebrating how great his band can be, something established immediately with an show-opening run of "Everlong," "Monkey Wrench" and "Learn to Fly."

The sextet of Grohl, guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bass player Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and keyboard player Rami Jaffee deconstructed these signature tunes, stretched them out and exploited them to maximum crowd-pleasing effect.

"Everlong," "Monkey Wrench" and "Learn to Fly" delivered enough bittersweet, scream-therapy and sing-along thrills, respectively, to allow easy sailing for the Foo Fighters across the two hours that followed.

But Grohl was honest when things rolled a bit off track. A rendition of "Outside," the "Sonic Highways" tune associated with the band's pilgrimage to Southern California, was "a little loose" in Grohl's estimation -- a self-deprecating assessment of what happened when he played a psych-rock guitar solo that went over the top and around the bend.

At the same time, give him credit for using the plastic boot protecting his broken leg as a makeshift surface to coax brutal sounds from his guitar.

More honesty arrived when Grohl heaped praise on supporting act Naked Raygun, the influential Chicago post-punk band that offered melodic dystopian tales for a Klipsch audience that didn't necessarily know what to make of the performance. For Grohl, however, Naked Raygun means the world because the band played the first show he ever attended. This biographical tidbit might have corresponded with the Cars or the J. Geils Band or Julian Lennon or Huey Lewis & the News, Grohl noted, but it doesn't. The fierce and unconventional Naked Raygun planted the seed.

From a different corner of the musical universe, Blues Traveler's John Popper walked onstage for a surprise cameo of skyscraping harmonica solos. Grohl honestly reveled in Popper's virtuosity, trading guitar licks with Popper's breath-control jams. The seemingly out-of-nowhere interlude (actually logical because Blues Traveler performs Friday through Sunday at Conner Prairie) underscored the embrace-American-music mission of "Sonic Highways."

While "Sonic Highways" may have succeeded more as a televised history lesson than it did as an album, the made-in-Chicago tune "Something from Nothing" provided one of Thursday's highlights.

Shiflett played nifty slide guitar to evoke the blues of Buddy Guy, who inspired a substantial chunk of the song's lyrics. In another nice touch, a video montage incorporated the logo of Buddy Guy's Legends nightclub.

On the topic of Chicago, Grohl may have been a bit disingenous when saying the Klipsch crowd was loud and enthusiastic enough to set the bar high for Saturday's show at Wrigley Field (which features Naked Raygun, Cheap Trick and Urge Overkill as supporting acts).

That's OK. Overselling is part of the showmanship that makes Grohl a front-runner in the sweepstakes for Last Rock Star Standing (no pun intended).

Never one to take himself too seriously, Grohl jokingly poor-mouthed his band when taking in waves of admittedly impressive cheers.

"We're not that good," he said. "We're not Imagine Dragons." Thanks for that, Dave.

Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.