It’s been more than 30 years since Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters—his chart-topping rock group, which saw the drummer take front and center stage after Nirvana, proving his chops as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. If there was any doubt that the band would continue after recent personal and line-up woes, he put them to rest last week, announcing the 12-date North American Take Cover stadium tour with Queens of the Stone Age. They also popped up recently via special small club shows in the U.S., including a recent surprise set in San Luis Obispo.
Nobody does big arena rock better than these two groups, but the Foos in-your-face energy is another beast altogether in an intimate setting. I’ve been lucky enough to see them play a couple of tiny venue shows in the past (including the Dragonfly in Hollywood and the now-shuttered Spaceland in Silver Lake) and they blended the blissfully communal experience of a big concert with a no-frills jam feel, not unlike watching your friend’s band at a backyard house party.
On October 30, Grohl and bandmates Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, llan Rubin, and Rami Jaffee (who actually is a long-time friend of mine), shared this vibe, performing inside a circle of fans and cameras for Amazon Music Live, the streamer’s post-Thursday Night Football concert series, livestreamed from a studio in Glendale, California.
On the ground and in the round, the band whipped up hit after hit in a faithful fashion that nonetheless felt fresh and maybe more ferocious than ever thanks to the wildly invigorating rhythms of Rubin, who joined the band to replace Josh Freese this past summer. Rubin, 37, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nine Inch Nails, making him its youngest living inductee ever. Freese, who toured with FF after Taylor Hawkins died, took Rubin’s place in NIN, marking a curious musical swap. All three are/were the best beat busters in the business, but after seeing Rubin’s aggressive and giddy playing style in this up-close forum—which recalls Grohl’s Nirvana and QOTSA kit stylings—it all sort of made sense. Sometimes it’s all about chemistry, and the current line-up really has it.
The band did not play the new single, “Asking for a Friend,” which was somewhat disappointing. It would’ve been cool to see it alongside the earlier material. It also kind of felt like Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” video, which Grohl remarked mid-set after looking around. We watched from a slightly elevated platform that encircled the band and definitely thought the same thing as we sang along to all their anthems, including “All My Life,” “Times Like These,” “My Hero,” “Learn to Fly,” “This Is a Call,” “No Son of Mine,” “The Pretender,” “Best of You,” and “Monkey Wrench.”
In addition to the tour, Grohl promised more surprise small gigs to come, too. “Anyone who wants to see us rip a three-hour long show in a sweaty little club, keep your eyes peeled and come out and see us,” he said, before thanking Amazon and his fans for their support the past three decades, echoing sentiments from his recent note on the band’s Substack, Foo Fighters Field Notes. “We never say goodbye…we’re a band that’s been around so long we can’t stop playing.”Watch the Foo Fighters Amazon Music Live show—filmed in atmospheric black and white—via rebroadcast here. Tickets for the Take Cover stadium tour are on sale now.
