Foo Fighters Play With Cover Band, Premiere New Material at Secret Show
The Foo Fighters played a secret gig at Brighton, England’s Concorde 2 on Wednesday, performing under the alias “the Holy Shits.” While the group usually packs arenas, only 600 fans caught this surprise concert, which featured a mix of greatest hits, songs that had dropped off the band’s set lists and one brief snippet of Sonic Highways material. There was also a cool moment where frontman Dave Grohl invited the lead singer of the tribute band UK Foo Fighters to come stage and sing Wasting Light‘s “White Limo” with the real Foo Fighters.
The band is in London to perform at the closing ceremonies of the Invictus Games on September 14th. News of the band’s “secret gig” began spreading after the band posted a “Holy Shits” concert poster on Twitter. According to Consequence of Sound, the small venue gig started as a runthrough of the group’s greatest hits, albeit with the Foos tackling each track a bit differently. “From here on out, every song that we do, we’ll make it a little bit different than we’ve ever done it before,” Grohl said, joking “Like Phish! No, not like Phish.” The band then skewed their alt-anthem “Learn to Fly” through a “trash-metal” filter.
The Foo Fighters also used the Holy Shits show to dust off some seldom-played cuts like “Enough Space,” which they hadn’t performed since 2010, and “Up in Arms” for the first time since 2011. The band also showcased their version of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers‘ “Breakdown,” which they’ve frequently covered over the years. But the real highlight came following the performance of “The Pretender” as the Foo Fighters teased a snippet of a song that’s rumored to appear on their upcoming album Sonic Highways, out November 10th.
On September 17th, the Foo Fighters will play a similarly smaller-than-usual gig at a crowdsourced concert in Richmond, Virginia’s National Theatre.