In the lead up to frontman Dave Grohl’s feature-length documentary, Sound City Records, Foo Fighters fans have been left to speculate on the band’s next move following a series of onstage clues and comments, indicated that an extended hiatus is imminent.
The suggestion that Foo Fighters are taking a vacation from music comes from Grohl’s comments at the Global Citizen Music Festival over the weekend, remarking on stage: “honestly, I don’t know when we’re gonna do it again…” referring to the band’s plans to tour for the foreseeable future.
The rumours of an extended break began earlier this year at England’s Reading Festival, which saw the Foos headlining alongside the likes of The Cure and Kasabian.
According to NME, peaking onstage during the Reading performance, Grohl said that he felt this was a special night and that it marked the end of the group’s tour in support of their latest studio instalment, Wasting Light. Early on in the set, Grohl said: “Well, well, well. The fucking Reading festival. You guys realise we’ve got a lot of songs to play. It’s the last show of the tour and it’s the last show for a long time.”
Not touching lightly on the topic, the frontman later added “you guys realise we’ve got a lot of songs to play. It’s the last show of the tour and it’s the last show for a long time”.
The night also was of significance to Grohl, who took the opportunity of standing before 60,000 plus fans to dedicate a track off the new album, ‘These Days’, to his fellow Nirvana bandmates. “I’d like to dedicate this song to a couple of people who couldn’t be here tonight. This one’s for Krist [Novoselic] and this one’s for Kurt [Cobain].”
The gesture was an indication that Grohl was attempting squeezing every last drop out of his English stopover, furthering the suggestion that perhaps Foo Fighters would not be returning for quite some time.
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If the band’s Reading Festival message was not taken seriously, perhaps the latest mention of an extended break may convince the skeptics.
More recently – as Billboard reports – the band performed a set at New York event, Global Citizen Music Festival, an event designed to use social media and a ticket ballot to fight global poverty; alongside sets from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Black Keys, Band of Horses and K’naan.
The Festival also gifted fans a rare onstage, ‘once in a blue moon’ jam featuring Young, Grohl and Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach.
During the Foo Fighters’ set however, Grohl gave fans another update on the band’s immediate future, remarking onstage: “Without making a big deal out of it, we don’t have any shows after this. This is it, man.”
He later added, “honestly, I don’t know when we’re gonna do it again… and this is the perfect place to do it.”
The festival was seen first-hand by over 60,000 lucky attendees with millions more viewing from live streams across the globe.
At the conclusion of the band’s set, Grohl issued his final statement, saying “This is it” and finally adding “I don’t know when, but we’ll see you again.”
In the absence of an active tour schedule, Grohl will no doubt be occupied by the upcoming release of his feature documentary on Sound City Studios, which has been described as “a film about the truth, the craft and the integrity of Rock and Roll”.
The iconic Californian studio is responsible for churning out several of the greatest albums to date including Nirvana’s Nevermind, Neil Young’s After The Gold Rush and Rage Against The Machine’s breakout self titled debut album.
Grohl’s documentary, with with its rich, rock history subject and all-star list of names (including Josh Homme, Trent Reznor, Mick Fleetwood and many, many more) looks set to be added to the pantheon of greatest rock movies of all time as the ultimate rockumentary.
