Broken Base: After the band refused to let their songs be featured on Glee, half of their fandom called it Awesome Music by sticking it to "that stupid show". The other half called them idiots for not seeing how much publicity they would gain. At least it spared us of cries of It's Popular, Now It Sucks and Ruined FOREVER.
Covered Up: The band's cover of Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" early in their career is the closest they have come. The original is iconic for its saxophone solo. The band simply converted the melody into guitar. The cover isn't that well known to have completely replaced the original however.
Epic Riff: The talk box intro of "Generator". "Everlong". "All My Life". "Stacked Actors". "Hey, Johnny Park!". "Rope" and the ever popular "Best Of You".
Dave Grohl. In fact, the first album was made completely by him, with the help of a producer and only a guitar played by another musician.
Dave himself was on the other side of this trope with Nirvana. Nirvana was Cobain. Many people wouldn't even know Dave Grohl was part of it.
Though it has to be said, Taylor Hawkins is almost as popular as Grohl now. This is evident in the crowd reaction for him, when introducing band members, Grohl only has to say 'the drummer' and the crowd noise will drown out anything else he says.
Whilst they sell many records and play arenas in their native US, their popularity there is nothing compared to that in the UK, where in recent years they have sold out massive outdoor shows in minutes, months in advance. By Dave's own admission, the UK treats them like they are "the biggest band in the world", and while he can walk around cities like Los Angeles largely unrecognized, he gets mobbed on the streets in the UK.
This also applies to the song 'Wheels' according to Dave who has mentioned on several occasions that apparently Germany is the only country where they can play the song with the crowd singing along. While most American crowds tend to be bored and most Asian crowds not to be bothered with it.
"Grand Theft Auto" Effect: "Everlong" is a great song, but some us who have played Rock Band 2 may be sick of it, and think about how much we have played it.
Growing the Beard: Many fans consider the 3rd album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, as the band's best.
Win Back the Crowd: Wasting Light finished the winning back that Echoes started after the relatively poor One By One and In Your Honor releases had lost some of the fans.