The Urbanspoon rating for a American pizza restaurant is about to skyrocket, but it’s not because of the items like the ‘The Rockaway Beach’ and ‘Urban Cowboy BBQ’ that you’ll find on their menu.
Instead it was a very special slice of rock music served up at Redballs Rock & Roll Pizza in Moorbank, California that had its patrons salivating: a secret gig from Foo Fighters.
Dave Grohl and his merry band of Foos’ exclusive show might not have been as extreme as Metallica playing in Antarctica, but it’s just as cool, designed as a warm-up gig for the arena-straddling rock band in the lead-up to their live comeback tomorrow in Mexico City, as NME reports.
While 200 or so fans who’d paid US$10 had shown up to the restaurant on Monday (9th December) expecting to see drummer Taylor Hawkins’ band Chevy Metal for a “Christmas Dance Party“, when Dave Grohl showed up unannounced – with bassist Nate Mendel and guitarists Chris Shifflet and Pat Smear in tow – they were instead dished up a piping hot slice of Foo.
The set was no margherita performance either, but instead a supreme 23-song set ‘with the lot’; a two-and-a-half hour performance with all the classic cuts, from ‘All My Life’ and ‘My Hero’ to ‘Monkey Wrench’, ‘This Is A Call’, plus regular set-closer ‘Everlong’.
One enterprising fan managed to keep his hands free from pizza pie long enough to provide “just a taste” of the set (namely ‘Learn To Fly’, ‘White Limo’, and ‘Arlandria’).
Though the greatest hits secret show setlist didn’t leave any room for the new material the band has been working on for their forthcoming eighth studio album, it may get an airing at the Foo Fighters upcoming Mexico City concert. The band playing the 55,000-capacity Foro Sol stadium, after an opening slot from The National, their first official live show since playing New York in September 2012.
Shortly after that NYC performance, Grohl confirmed that the Foos were officially going on hiatus while he focussed on other projects (re: the Sound City doco, accompanying supergroup live tour, and Paul McCartney-fronted Nirvana reunion), and before the prolific frontman ever had time to rest on laurels, come June he’d confirmed work had begun on a new Foo Fighters album.
“It was a very short hiatus. We’re going to start recording the new Foo Fighters record at the beginning of next year,” confirmed guitarist Chris Shiflett earlier this year, while Grohl said they’d plan to record it “in a way that no one’s ever done before, and we’re pretty excited about it.”
Since then, Nevermind producer Butch Vig confirmed he was helping produce the album, following on from his turn behind the desk on 2011’s Wasting Light album, saying that its full-length followup was a set of “KILLER new songs” with the as-yet untitled release presumably written and expected sometime in 2014.
Foo Fighters Redballs Rock & Roll Pizza Setlist
All My Life
Rope
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
White Limo
Arlandria
Breakout
Cold Day In The Sun
Long Road To Ruin
Big Me
Stacked Actors
Walk
These Days
Generator
Monkey Wrench
Hey, Johnny Park!
This Is A Call
Bridge Burning
Dear Rosemary
Breakdown (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)
Times Like These
Everlong
