The Foo Fighters aced their return and the reopening of Madison Square Garden concert venue.
The jam packed concert held last June 20 not only signaled the reopening of the “Garden,” but also highlighted the very first concert to have an all-vaccinated audience.
The Foo Fighters are the first band to hold a show at the popular music and sports venue since it closed down in March 2020 due to Covid-19. New York was one of the hardest-hit cities in America during the start of the pandemic that also hit hard and closed countries around the world.
The city of New York has since rebounded.
According to Rolling Stone, concertgoers going into the Garden were admitted in using a mobile electronic “passport” called the Excelsior Pass to show proof of their vaccination.
The Foo Fighters didn’t have the traditional opening act to warm up the excited crowd—who obviously was already pumped up at the prospect of their first ever live show after a long while—instead the band took it upon themselves to deliver the goods so to speak, dishing out a roughly three-hour set.
As seen on YouTube and footages posted on social media by those who saw the show, the 24-song setlist of the Foo Fighters included all of the band’s hits, deep cuts and some surprises.
Clips from mobile cameras showed that the band opened with a stripped down version of “Times Like These” that eventually built up to its original full band arrangement. “The Pretender” and “Learn To Fly” came next to the delight of everybody in the arena.
One of the main surprises in the show featured an appearance of comedian Dave Chappelle, who sang a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” with the Foo Fighters.
Singer Dave Grohl, who was obviously moved by the sight of the gathered audience at the arena said, “For the last year, I had this reoccurring dream that I would fin’ walk onstage and we would look at each other for the first time. And it would take a couple of minutes, where we just look at each other like, ‘Thank God we got here tonight.’ I fin’ walk out onstage tonight. It was just like that f***in’ dream.”
The Foo Fighters played their hits alongside covers. “’Times Like These’ and ‘My Hero’ felt especially profound during the set,” wrote Rolling Stone, referring to the new meaning that the song took in light of the still ongoing pandemic.
The Foo Fighters also got to do their Bee Gees tribute band bit when they performed “You Should Be Dancing” before playing the last song “Everlong.”
The Foo Fighters Madison Square Garden set list:
1.” Times Like These”
- “The Pretender”
- “Learn to Fly”
- “No Son of Mine”
- “The Sky Is a Neighborhood”
- “Shame Shame”
- “Rope”
- “Run”
- “My Hero”
- “These Days”
- “Medicine at Midnight”
- “Walk”
- “Somebody to Love”
- “Monkey Wrench”
- “Arlandria”
- “Breakout”
- “Creep”
- “All My Life”
- “Aurora”
- “This Is a Call”
- “Best of You”
Encore:
- “Making a Fire”
- “You Should Be Dancing”
- “Everlong”