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When I left Millerton on Wednesday around 3 o’clock to head towards Citi Field in Queens, the weather prognosis for the evening did not look good. 

Despite the soggy weather, I was in incredibly good spirits. Why, might you ask? Because I was heading to see my favorite band live for the first time. I have loved the Foo Fighters since I was 16 years old and found out that the lead singer is indeed the guy from Nirvana. I remember preferring to jam my headphones in my ears during my free periods in high school and tearing through the Foos’ entire discography on Spotify instead of speaking to my friends. (This only lasted for a week and they quickly forgave me). 

In fact, I had tickets to see the Foo Fighters back in 2022 when they were going to be performing at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. However, after their drummer, Taylor Hawkins, died unexpectedly, they understandably canceled all of their tour dates, unsure of whether or not they would even be able to continue on as a band, much less tour again. 

Thankfully, after grieving, they decided that they would, in fact, continue making music and touring with their new drummer, Josh Freese. He’s an original member of A Perfect Circle, DEVO, and The Vandals, and he also previously served as the drummer for Nine Inch Nails and Guns N’ Roses. Josh is arguably the best man for the job and brings the kind of energy and intensity to Foos songs that Taylor was known for. 

The Wednesday concert kicked off the American leg of their “Everything or Nothing At All” tour, in support of their 2023 album, But Here We Are, the content of which deals with the band’s grieving process following the death of Hawkins and Dave Grohl’s grief after the loss of his mother, who also passed in 2022. Subsequently, the album is dedicated to both Hawkins and Grohl’s mother, Virginia. 

At the time of the album’s release, the band had not yet publicly named a replacement for Hawkins. It was later shared that Dave Grohl performed the drums on But Here We Are, making it his first drumming credit on a Foo Fighters album since 2005.

To say that I was psyched for this concert would be an understatement. If you’ve been keeping up with my concert reviews, you know that I love a wide variety of music and I will almost always jump at the chance to see a live show. While I’m always excited for concerts, this one was particularly close to my heart. It’s a different kind of giddiness when you know you’re about to see your favorite band live on stage in just a few short hours. Not even the thunderstorms and awful drive could keep me away or dampen my glee. 

Due to the storms, we missed Mammoth WVH, who was the first opener for the show. Not familiar with that name? Does Eddie Van Halen ring a bell? Mammoth is a rock band formed and fronted by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son. The name is a combo of his initials and a reference to Mammoth, an earlier band that his father Eddie and uncle Alex were a part of before forming Van Halen. From what I read, Mammoth took the stage promptly at 5:3o when the show was slated to begin and performed for about a half an hour. 

We were walking into the stadium at 6:30 when The Pretenders took the stage. At almost 73, lead singer Chrissie Hynde sounds exactly the same and brought a level of energy to the stage that outdoes plenty of younger performers I’ve seen live. They played for nearly an hour under decently clear skies. I think I almost saw the sun come out once or twice. It was almost enough to delude me to the looming threat of storms that were supposed to occur right around 10 o’clock. 

The Foos hit the stage 

The Foos took the stage promptly at 8pm and opened the show with “All My Life” from their 2002 album One by One. The fast pace immediately got the audience on their feet, singing along, head banging, and cheering. 

“No Son of Mine” was up next from their 2021 album, Medicine at Midnight. In the middle of the song, Dave took a quick break to ask the crowd if they liked rock n’ roll. Obviously, he was met with enthusiastic cheers. He asked two more times, to which he received louder and more rambunctious responses from the audience each time he asked. When he was satisfied with the audience’s enthusiasm, he proceeded to “test” our knowledge of rock music by playing snippets of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” before launching back into the rest of “No Son of Mine.”

Next, they performed “Rescued” from their latest album, followed by “The Pretender” from their 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. 

“Walk” from their 2011 album Wasting Light was up next. Following this, Dave thanked everyone for being there and made particular note of the young fans who were there. He then acknowledged all of the older fans and noted that they would be playing songs that the young fans knew, and the songs that came out before they were even born. 

From there, they launched into a song that everyone knew: “Times Like These.” Dave started out with just his guitar and the sounds of the audience singing. I don’t know about you, but I always get goosebumps when I hear an entire crowd singing the songs so loudly that they almost overpower the band on stage. “Times Like These” is one of those songs. 

From there, they performed a few throwbacks for the older fans including “Generator” and “La Dee Da,” before going into “Breakout.” During “Breakout,” Dave took a Foo Fighters fan from someone in the audience and used it to fan himself while he discussed how hot it was up on stage. Considering that there was an excessive heat warning in Queens that day, it’s safe to imagine that it was pretty warm up on stage under all of those lights. 

“Listen, girl. Listen, my girl. It is hot tonight,” he said, before having one of the members of the lighting crew light up the audience so that he could see the crowd. “Girl, it is hot tonight! Woo-wee!” 

Following “Breakout,” he introduced the rest of the band and allowed them each to have their own solos. He introduced lead guitarist Chris Shiflett first, who performed Van Halen’s “Eruption” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” From there, he introduced bassist Nate Mendel, who performed the Beastie Boys classic “Sabotage,” then shot over to keyboardist Rami St. Jaffee, who performed a psychedelic keyboard solo. 

“I know what you’re thinking. How does that apply to what we do?,” Dave asked after his solo. “Don’t f-cking worry about it. That’s Rami St. Jaffee and I wanna hear you say, ‘yeah!’” 

One person on the stage who didn’t need an introduction at all was Pat Smear, rhythm guitarist. Dave introduced him by simply saying, “I mean…” and gesturing over to him as Pat began to play the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The crowd, obviously understanding the assignment, began chanting “Pat f-cking Smear!” following his solo, to which Dave noted, “Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the first ‘Pat f-cking Smear’ we’ve ever had at a rock show. First time. That’s Pat f-cking Smear, I love him so much.” 

Finally, Dave introduced the “person who made it possible for us to come out and play for you tonight,” Josh Freese on the drums. Keeping with the theme, the crowd began to chant, “Josh f-cking Freese!” much to Freese’s delight. Dave quickly countered with, “Really? When you go to McDonald’s, do you order a big f-cking Mac? Is that your thing?” The crowd, of course, responded by chanting “Big f-cking Mac” back at Dave, who grinned and said, “See?” 

Josh, who previously performed with Nine Inch Nails, naturally performed “March of the Pigs.” After introducing everyone, they went back into performing Foo Fighters’ songs and chose one that everyone would be able to sing along to: “My Hero.”

At this point of the concert, the threat of severe weather was looming. I could see lightning becoming more and more frequent and getting closer to us, but like everyone else, was trying to ignore it and pretend like it wasn’t going to be an issue. We managed to delude ourselves for one more song. 

They performed “The Sky is a Neighborhood” from their 2017 album Concrete and Gold without a hitch, but took a moment to address the crowd before performing “Learn to Fly.” 

“There’s some lightning and sh-t like that. We’re going to play as much as we can until someone says it’s not safe for you,” he said. Following “Learn to Fly,” Dave was gesturing and talking to someone on the side of the stage before telling the crowd that they were going to perform one more song before the storm closed in on the city. 

“We’re gonna do one more, we’re gonna wait this sh-t out. If we can come back, you f-cking know we will, right?” He said at about 9:30 pm before launching into “Everlong.” He didn’t make it very far however, as the crew pulled the plug – literally and metaphorically – on the show before the first chorus.

An announcement quickly came over the system to seek shelter and no sooner than we made it into the concourse did it start torrential downpouring. Citi Field didn’t immediately make a statement that the remainder of the show would be canceled, so many fans had hoped that they would come back out onstage. I, who had the weather radar on my phone and could see that the storm wasn’t going to pass until well after midnight and was armed with the knowledge that Citi Field has a curfew somewhere around 11 pm, was not so optimistic. 

We hung around for an extra 20 minutes or so, mostly because I didn’t want to run to the car in the pouring rain, but completely lost hope when the concession stands closed up and I overheard some security guards talking about how there likely wasn’t enough time to conclude the show. 

So at about 10 pm, we made a mad dash for the car and got completely soaking wet in the process. At 10:30 pm, Citi Field made the official announcement on their social media that “unfortunately due to the continued presence of lightning in the area, tonight’s show has concluded. Please exit the venue and have a safe night.”

Ultimately, the Foo Fighters only got through 13 of their typical 20-song set before they were pulled off stage due to the weather, which I guess isn’t terrible, but was certainly disappointing for myself and many other fans who traveled and braved the uncertain conditions for the show. 

In a statement to their social media just shy of 11:30 pm, the Foos shared that, “We are so disappointed that we were unable to play our full set for tonight’s fantastic crowd at Citi Field. But the safety of our fans, the crew, and everyone working the stadium comes first, so when it was determined that there was no safe way to continue the show in this dangerous weather, we had no choice but to call it a night. We’re grateful for every second we were able to play for you and looking forward to seeing you again – maybe as soon as Friday!” 

A better alternative

Overall, I think the Foos made the best of a bad situation. They put on a hell of a show for an hour and a half, and anyone who was there could tell that they were truly disappointed to be leaving the stage early. 

That being said, I think Citi Field certainly could have done a better job of managing the situation. The poor weather was forecasted well ahead of time, and with that knowledge, I think they could have chosen from a variety of potential solutions such as moving up the start time of the concert to begin earlier, cutting one of the opening sets to be shorter (sorry, Pretenders and Mammoth WVH, it’s nothing against you!), or even postponing the show to Thursday the 18th. Given that they were armed with the knowledge of the severe weather conditions ahead of time, I think they could have planned better and not left so many fans (who were more than willing to get soaking wet and stand out in the treacherous conditions, for better or for worse) frustrated and disappointed. 

Regardless, the Foos put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, despite it being cut short. The energy radiating from the stage and encompassing the stadium was so intense and you could just tell that everyone was really locked in on the music and so genuinely happy to be there. I’m very much looking forward to getting tickets once they’re in the Northeast again.

To listen to the setlist from the show, listen to our playlist below.