Foo Fighters entered a new era on Wednesday night in Gilford, NH, where the band performed its first concert with drummer Josh Freese. The show at Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook marked the alt-rockers’ first headlining date since the sudden death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March.
The Dave Grohl-fronted group revealed its new beat keeper just days before the show during a pre-recorded online stream. The visibly emotional 21-song performance toggled through the band’s enduring hits old and new like “Walk”, “Learn to Fly”, “My Hero”, and “These Days”, peppered with cuts from the band’s upcoming album, But Here We Are.
Foo Fighters opened the show with the live debut of “Rescued”, the band’s first single post-Hawkins. Wednesday’s show witnessed the live debuts of four But Here We Are songs, including the yet-unreleased title track. Midway through the encore-less performance, Dave Grohl brought out his daughter Violet to sing Foo’s Medicine at Midnight track “Shame Shame”. Violet previously stepped into the spotlight with a memorable performance of Amy Winehouse‘s “Valerie” at the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley Stadium last year.
The emotional high point of the evening came in the latter half of the show as Freese, Nate Mendel (bass), Pat Smear (guitar), Chris Shiflett (guitar), and Rami Jaffee (keys) stepped aside to give Grohl the stage. Fighting back tears, he dusted off the Hawkins-penned “Cold Day in the Sun” for its first performance in five years.
“This is something I never thought I’d have to do,” Grohl said ahead of the song. “Taylor wrote this song, we used to sing it together. I’m gonna do it for him tonight.”
With the emotional air heavy in Gilford, the Foo Fighters executed an energetic boomerang, bringing the mood back up with a triumphant ending series of “Monkey Wrench”, “Best of You”, “Aurora”, and finally “Everlong”.
Wednesday’s show acted as a warmup before Foo Fighters hit the road for a string of high-profile festival dates and headlining shows. The band is in Boston this weekend atop the Boston Calling lineup, with festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Riot Fest, and Austin City Limits following throughout the summer. For tickets and a full list of tour dates visit the band’s website.
Hours after stepping offstage in New Hampshire, Foo Fighters shared a new single, “Show Me How”. But Here We Are is out June 2nd and is available here for pre-order. Check out the new single along with a selection of live videos from last night’s concert below.
Foo Fighters – “Rescued”, “Walk” – 5/24/23
[Video: Amanda J]
Foo Fighters – “Show Me How”
Setlist: Foo Fighters | Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook | Gilford, NH
Set: Rescued [1] Walk, No Son of Mine [2], Learn to Fly, Under You [1], The Pretender, But Here We Are [1], Breakout, The Sky Is a Neighborhood, My Hero, This Is a Call, All My Life, Nothing at All [1], Shame Shame [3], These Days, Cold Day in the Sun [4], Monkey Wrench, Best of You, Aurora, Everlong
[1] Live debut
[2] with segment of Black Sabbath’s “ Paranoid” in the middle
[3] w/ Violet Grohl on vocals
[4] dedicated to Taylor Hawkins; LTP 10/22/18; Dave on vocals; solo acoustic