Foo Fighters bring their stadium show to a modest NYC venue. Inside the
exclusive, surprise concert
[May 01, 2026]
By MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — Two years ago Foo Fighters almost made a triumphant
return to New York City.
They performed for a sold-out crowd that summer at Citi Field in Queens
— a baseball stadium with room for nearly 42,000 fans — but their fiery
set was cut short by Mother Nature: A torrential downpour and fearsome
lightning made for unsafe and appropriately ominous conditions.
It was fortuitous in some ways; the next two years for the band would be
tumultuous. It was also in 2024 that front man Dave Grohl announced he
fathered a child outside his marriage. And then in 2025, the band parted
ways with drummer Josh Freese after just one tour, hiring Ilan Rubin to
replace him two months later.
Things have since turned around. Last week the band released its 12th
full-length studio album, “Your Favorite Toy,” an energetic collection
of tracks with an aggressive, fast-paced punk style, distorted vocals
and occasional overly compressed production, as The Associated Press'
Dennis Waszak Jr. wrote in his review. Those songs felt at home Thursday
night at the much smaller Irving Plaza in Manhattan, a sold-out space
with a capacity of just around 1,000, where the larger-than-life rock
band brought a sonic immediacy to the intimate venue.
A secret show for a lucky few
Foo Fighters announced two surprise shows Wednesday: one at Irving Plaza
on Thursday and another at the Starland Ballroom on Saturday in New
Jersey. Tickets were priced at $30, limited to two per purchaser and
available only on a first-come, first-served basis at 10 a.m. Thursday
at each venue.
Some fans camped overnight. Others lined up long before 10 a.m. The
lucky few able to grab tickets to the Irving Plaza show night wore
vintage Foo Fighters merchandise into the venue and bought new designs.
They swapped stories about the last time they saw the band and theorized
about how they would perform on such a small stage.
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Dave Grohl from the band Foo Fighters performs during the Corona
Capital music festival in Mexico City, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP
Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
 When the Foo Fighters emerged, it
was six minutes after 8 p.m. “How ya doing?” energetic front man
Dave Grohl said in greeting the crowd, promising a lot of new tracks
and some “old school.”
And the band delivered: 2002's “All My Life” and “Times Like These”
were next to late '90s hits like “Monkey Wrench” and “My Hero,” and
week-old songs “Spit Shine” and “My Favorite Toy.”
“Sometimes I ask the audience if they love rock ‘n’ roll music,”
Grohl told the crowd. “I'm not gonna ask you all because I know you
love rock ‘n’ roll music.”
Even if the location was stripped down, the band had no interest in
a minimized show. There were no pyrotechnics or fireworks or
fanfare, sure, but surprises abounded: “Window,” a new song, got its
live debut. The band opened a five-song encore with “A320,” its
contribution to the oft-overlooked 1998 “Godzilla” soundtrack.
At one moment a concertgoer shouted, “Taylor Hawkins forever!” in
memory of the band's late drummer. Grohl instinctively responded,
“That's right!”
“For those who've never seen us before,” Grohl said two and a half
hours into the set, “next time we'll try to make it feel like this.”
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.
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