Foo Fighters Enlist Heart, Joan Jett, Gary Clark Jr. for Epic July 4th D.C. Show
Even though Foo Fighters have been prepping for the November 10th release of their eighth record, Sonic Highways, they’ve already begun looking ahead to the future. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the group’s debut, Foo Fighters, which just happened to come out on July 4th, 1995. Fittingly, the band will mark that milestone with a Fourth of July concert in Washington, D.C. that will also feature an array of notable musicians.
In addition to a performance by the Foos, the concert will also feature appearances by musicians who appeared in the band’s ongoing HBO docuseries Sonic Highways, where it has been exploring the roots of regional scenes in major American cities. Accordingly, the 20th anniversary show will spotlight Chicago’s Buddy Guy, Austin’s Gary Clark Jr., Seattle’s Heart, Los Angeles’ Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, New York City’s LL Cool J with DJ Z-Trip, D.C.’s Trouble Funk and New Orleans’ Trombone Shorty. The blowout also promises fireworks, a motorcycle rally and, because it will indeed be Independence Day, barbecue.
Tickets for the concert, which will take place at the capital’s RFK Stadium, will go on sale on November 8th. There will be no pre-sales, and all tickets will be general admission (no reserved seating), either for the venue’s field or seated area.
Despite being the 20th anniversary of the group’s debut album, the band probably won’t be playing it in full. On Wednesday, Grohl said he “fucking hates” when bands tour behind one classic album. “I don’t like it when bands do that,” he said. “It’s presumptuous. It’s lazy. The best way to celebrate our 20th anniversary isn’t to focus on 20 years ago, but to focus on the last 20 years, meaning two years ago and six years ago and eight years ago.”
Foo Fighters have been sharing select tracks from Sonic Highways as its release date approaches. Recently, the group shared its Nashville-inspired track “Congregation,” and raucous Chicago tune “Something From Nothing.”
“Basically, the process is we come to a city and we spend a week and we start recording an instrumental, because I interview all of these different musicians from that city,” Grohl said in a trailer for the Sonic Highways show, adding that he transforms the interviews into song lyrics. “I talk about the regional relevance of the music from that city, the cultural influence, that ‘made-for-the-sound’ of the music. There’s no way that you can tell the history of a city’s music in one hour, so we have to do it in a way that relates to the band and goes from point A to point B and becomes a song.”