The new record,<\/a> which \u201cfeels like a back-to-basics blast of fresh air, with Grohl using these songs to face up to himself\u201d as noted by The Independent\u2019s Roisin O’Connor <\/a>is expected to top album charts around the world. <\/p>\n Playing to a capacity crowd of just 1,000 at the much smaller venue, the band brought a “sonic immediacy” that belied their stadium-filling reputation.<\/p>\n This resurgence follows a tumultuous two-year period for the band. Two years prior, a sold-out show at Citi Field in Queens<\/a>, with nearly 42,000 fans, was abruptly cut short by a torrential downpour and lightning, an ominous precursor to what lay ahead. <\/p>\n The subsequent years saw frontman Dave Grohl<\/a> announce he had fathered a child outside his marriage<\/a> in 2024, followed by the departure of drummer Josh Freese in 2025<\/a> after just one tour, with Ilan Rubin stepping in two months later.<\/a><\/p>\n However, with Your Favorite Toy and their powerful return to the stage, it appears the band has firmly turned a corner, reclaiming their status with renewed vigour.<\/p>\n A secret show for a lucky few <\/p>\n Foo Fighters<\/a> announced two surprise shows Wednesday: one at Irving Plaza on Thursday and another at the Starland Ballroom on Saturday in New Jersey<\/a>. <\/p>\n Tickets were priced at $30, limited to two per purchaser and available only on a first-come, first-served basis at 10am on Thursday at each venue.<\/p>\n Some fans camped overnight. Others lined up long before 10am. The lucky few able to grab tickets to the Irving Plaza show night wore vintage Foo Fighters<\/a> merchandise into the venue and bought new designs. <\/p>\n They swapped stories about the last time they saw the band and theorized about how they would perform on such a small stage.<\/p>\n When the Foo Fighters emerged, it was six minutes after 8 p.m. \u201cHow ya doing?\u201d energetic front man Dave Grohl<\/a> said in greeting the crowd, promising a lot of new tracks and some \u201cold school.\u201d <\/p>\n And the band delivered: 2002’s \u201cAll My Life\u201d and \u201cTimes Like These\u201d were next to late ’90s hits like \u201cMonkey Wrench\u201d and \u201cMy Hero,\u201d and week-old songs \u201cSpit Shine\u201d and \u201cMy Favorite Toy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I ask the audience if they love rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music,\u201d Grohl told the crowd. \u201cI’m not gonna ask you all because I know you love rock \u2018n\u2019 roll music.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if the location was stripped down, the band had no interest in a minimized show. <\/p>\n There were no pyrotechnics or fireworks or fanfare, sure, but surprises abounded: \u201cWindow,\u201d a new song, got its live debut. <\/p>\n The band opened a five-song encore with \u201cA320,\u201d its contribution to the oft-overlooked 1998 Godzilla soundtrack. <\/p>\n At one moment a concertgoer shouted, \u201cTaylor Hawkins<\/a> forever!\u201d in memory of the band’s late drummer.<\/a> Grohl instinctively responded, \u201cThat’s right!\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cFor those who’ve never seen us before,\u201d Grohl said two and a half hours into the set, \u201cnext time we’ll try to make it feel like this.\u201d <\/p>\n Of course next time is likely to be in a venue 40 times the size of Irving Plaza. It gave the still-buzzing crowd something to think about as they exited into a rainy April night.<\/p>\n Foo Fighters set list at Irving Plaza <\/p>\n WinnebagoAll My LifeTimes Like TheseCaught in the EchoOf All PeopleStacked ActorsLa Dee DaThe PretenderMy HeroLearn to FlyWindowThis Is a CallNo Son of Mine (with Mot\u00f6rhead’s “Ace of Spades” snippet)Your Favorite ToyThese DaysWalkAuroraMonkey WrenchHey, Johnny Park!Best of You<\/p>\n Encore: <\/p>\n A320Spit ShineUnconditionalExhaustedEverlong <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-560471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Foo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/foo-fighters.png\")
Foo Fighters during their surprise show at Irving Plaza on Thursday (@AndrewHarts\/X)<\/p>\n