Foo Fighters frontman and leader Dave Grohl spoke openly about his feelings being on tour during this global pandemic. Grohl spoke to NME recently and when asked how it feels to be back on stage, offered this response:
“For the two-and-a-half hours onstage, it feels amazing. It’s the other hours of the day that pose a bit of a challenge because of all the new requirements and restrictions and guidelines. You have to be really careful out there. When you’re travelling with a crew of 60 people from state to state and venue to venue, you try your best to stay within your band bubble because the wheels could fall off at any moment. You wake up every day and cross your fingers and hope that we make it to the stage that day.”
A serious concern for the Foos being the band that has taken up the mantle of bringing full capacity, live, music back to major venues. Venues that have been silent for well over a year. Foo Fighters was the first band to play the legendary Madison Square Garden to a sold out crowd since the arena closed its doors at the beginning of the pandemic. They had also scheduled the first full capacity show back at the LA Forum for this past July, but a positive Covid test within the Foos camp forced a postponement of that show. Out of an abundance of cautions Dave and the Foo Fighters have played most shows requiring proof of vaccination or negative Covid tests from its audience. A responsible approach as we all try to put this behind us and be able to fully get back to live music everywhere.
Grohl was asked about the summer tour across the U.S. and how it was going:
“We were fortunate to complete this last two-week run – but, you know, we played a venue in Albuquerque [the 15,000-capacity Isleta Amphitheater] where it was the first time they’d had a show there in 688 days. And you could feel it in the audience. You could hear it when they sang along. You could see it when they danced. It’s been a town-to-town celebration of the return of live music everywhere we go – opening new venues, reopening venues that had shut down. And you could see that people have been starved of live performance – as have we. We hit the stage like we haven’t hit the stage for two years!”
The interviewer, detecting a tentative kind of hopefulness in his response, asked him about it,
“No, not at at all. As a band, we’re most concerned with safety – the safety of the audience, the safety of our band, the crew – so we follow these guidelines. Some of them are self-imposed; others are mandates that are handed down from local governments or federal mandates and you’re very conscious of the whole thing just going away again – any time. Every day you’re just hoping that we make it through. When you’re onstage… we’re playing like that quite possibly could be the last show. It’s great! When we hit the stage, a lot of the nerves go away because you’re back with the people, so it’s all right.”
Last year marked the band’s 25th anniversary. Since they were unable to celebrate properly, this year they will pick up the slack.
The Foo’s busy schedule looks like this moving forward:
08/17 Anchorage, AK @ Dena’ina Center
08/19 Anchorage, AK @ Dena’ina Center
08/21 Fairbanks, AK @ Carlson Center
08/26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum
09/03 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
09/05 Napa Valley, CA @ Bottlerock
09/15 Syracuse, NY @ St Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview (feat. Bambara)
09/17 Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater (feat. Bambara)
10/08-10 New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz Fest
11/10 Mexico City, MEX @ Foro Sol (feat. The Warning, Kills Birds)
11/12-13 Monterrey, MEX @ Tecate Pal Norte
05/27-29 Boston, MA @ Boston Calling
06/08 Berlin, GER @ Flughafen, Tempelhof (feat. The Pretty Reckless & Greta Van Fleet)
06/10 Nickelsdorg, AUT @ Nova Rock Festival
06/12 Milan, ITA @ I-Days
06/14 Basel, SWI @ St. Jakob-Park (feat. Weezer)
06/16 Valencia, SPA @ Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias
06/18 Lisbon, POR @ Rock In Rio
06/20 Madrid, SPA @ Wanda Metrpolitano Stadium (feat. Liam Gallagher & Amyl & The Sniffers)
06/22-23 Nimes, FRA @ Festival de Nimes
06/25 Manchester, UK @ Emirates Old Trafford (feat. St. Vincent & Loose Articles)
06/27 Birmingham, UK @ Villa Park (feat. Courtney Barnett & Hot Milk)
06/30 London, UK @ London Stadium (St. Vincent & Shame)
07/02 London, UK @ London Stadium (feat. Courtney Barnett & Ho
