Foo Fighters returned to Madison Square Garden on Sunday for the venue’s—and New York City’s—first full-capacity concert since March 2020. The concert, which hosted a fully vaccinated audience, also saw the band welcome special guest Dave Chappelle for a cover of “Creep” by Radiohead.
The show opened up with an emphatic “Times Like These”, which became an anthem of sorts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emotions ran high throughout the concert, as Foo Fighters interspersed new tracks from Medicine At Midnight with their bevy of hits, including “Learn to Fly”, “Rope”, “My Hero”, and more. In addition to marking the band’s post-pandemic return to the stage, the show took on added meaning for the Dave Grohl-led outfit as they dedicated the performance to Andy Pollard, the band’s longtime stage manager who died on Friday.
An evening that required no theatrics or special tricks nonetheless was infused with some arena rock razzle-dazzle as Foo Fighters welcomed Dave Chappelle to the stage. The comedian was already in NYC for the Tribeca debut of Dave Chappelle: This Time This Place, a new documentary about his pandemic comedy shows at his home in Dayton, OH. Per Consequence of Sound, Chappelle has sang “Creep” onstage numerous times with various artists, including John Mayer and another time with Bradley Cooper and Lenny Kravitz.
For the triple encore, Foo Fighters offered fans another preview of their upcoming Bee Gees cover album, to be titled Hail Satin and released under the monicker Dee Gees, with a rendition of “You Should Be Dancing“. The 24-song performance came to a fiery end with the band’s all-time chart-topper, “Everlong”.
Watch the Foo Fighters’ return to Madison Square Garden, and the return of large-scale, full-capacity events to New York and the World’s Most Famous Arena via a full-show, pro-shot video below.
Foo Fighters – Madison Square Garden – New York, NY – 6/20/21 [Full-Show Video]
Setlist: Foo Fighters | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 6/20/21
Set: Times Like These, The Pretender, Learn to Fly, No Son of Mine, The Sky Is a Neighborhood, Shame Shame, Rope, Run, My Hero, These Days, Medicine at Midnight, Walk, Somebody to Love (Queen) [1], Monkey Wrench, Arlandria, Breakout, Creep (Radiohead) [2], All My Life, Aurora, This Is a Call, Best of You
Encore: Making a Fire, You Should Be Dancing (Bee Gees), Everlong
[1] w/ Taylor Hawkins on vocals
[2] wsg Dave Chappelle on vocals