Foo Fighters returned to the stage for their first show in more than a year on Saturday night (September 13th) at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The last-minute concert was announced the night before, with tickets selling out immediately.
The gig marked the debut of new Foo Fighers drummer Ilan Rubin, following reports earlier this summer that he had replaced Josh Freese in essentially what amounted a trade between the Foos and Nine Inch Nails.
Grohl and company certainly gave fans their money’s worth at the intimate gig, playing a 25-song set, kicking off with “All My Life,” as Rubin immediately lived up to the challenge with the drum-heavy song.
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At one point in the show, Grohl told the audience, “I finally get the opportunity to say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome… the most badass motherfucker, Ilan Rubin, is playing drums in the Foo Fighters right now.’ It’s official. You can stamp the passport.”
The Foos broke out a handful of tunes for the first time in a decade or more, including “Have It All” (last performed in 2015), a cover of Late!’s “Winnebago” (not played since 2014), and “Exhausted” (previously performed in 2014).
The rest of the set featured favorites like “Times Like These,” “The Pretender,” “My Hero,” and “Best of You,” and closed out with the classic “Everlong.”
The one-off concert precedes a series of dates in Asia in October and Mexico in November, with tickets to those concerts available here. During the show last night, Grohl revealed that the band had some other surprises coming up in the near future.
See video footage and the setlist from the San Luis Obispo below.
Setlist:
All My Life
Rope
Have It All (first time since 2015)
Times Like These
Wattershed
Stacked Actors
La Dee Da
These Days
The Pretender
Walk
My Hero (preceded by band introductions)
Learn to Fly
Rescued
Aurora
This Is a Call
No Son of Mine (with Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” interpolation)
Shame Shame
White Limo
Winnebago (Late! cover — first time since 2014)
Best of You
Encore:
Alone + Easy Target (first time since 2018)
Low
Monkey Wrench
Exhausted (first time since 2014)
Everlong