Foo Fighters have released a new live album capturing their recent run of intimate club shows. Listen in full below.
The six-track record, titled ‘Are Playing Where??? Vol. I’, arrived exclusively on Bandcamp today (Friday October 3).
It features songs recorded at Dave Grohl and co’s first live gigs together in over a year – which took place last month in San Luis Obispo, Santa Ana, Washington D.C. and New Haven.
According to a press release, ‘Are Playing Where???’ boasts “absolutely ripping live tracks recorded in front of dozens, possibly hundreds of lucky fans at the band’s recent surprise club gigs”.
The tracklist for ‘Vol. I’ consists of ‘Alone + Easy Target’, ‘Exhausted’, ‘Wattershed’ and ‘Weenie Beenie’ – all of which appear on the Foos’ self-titled debut album (1995), along with a live rendition of a bonus track from that era, ‘Winnebago’. There is also a version of 2011’s ‘White Limo’ from the group’s seventh album ‘Wasting Light’.
Fans can stream the album for free via Bandcamp or purchase a digital copy on a “pay what you want” basis. “Any proceeds from this EP will go to local charities in those cities,” Foo Fighters wrote in the description.
“Hope you check out more music while you are here. Long live rock!!!”
Tune in here:
Are Playing Where??? Vol. I by Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters recently appeared to tease a wider tour, saying that “there’s more to come” soon in a tongue-in-cheek AI video. They said they had been “preparing something special” and “rehearsing tirelessly” to give audiences their “best” shows “from the heart”.
Elsewhere, the band called on fans to “assemble” and began posting some images from the studio – suggesting that new music was on the horizon. They instructed their followers to sign up for “info you won’t want to miss… just sayin’”.
The band’s 11th and latest album, ‘But Here We Are’, arrived in 2023. It marked their first material since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins the previous year, and saw them enlist Josh Freese as a touring sticksman.
Over the summer, the Foos celebrated their 30th anniversary by releasing a new track called ‘Today’s Song’. Earlier this year, Freese announced that he had quit Foo Fighters after they “decided to go in a different direction with their drummer”. The group have since hired Ilan Rubin – essentially swapping Nine Inch Nails for their ex-touring drummer Freese.
Following his first gigs with the band, Rubin spoke out about how it felt to join the line-up. “After keeping my head down for a couple wild months and throwing myself into the material, that first show was such an incredible release of energy,” he said.
“I’ve been taken aback by all the positivity and support, and I just wanted to say thanks! Excited for all the volume and sweat that lies ahead.”
Freese also addressed being let go from Foo Fighters: “Looking back, it was probably more an issue with their management.” However, the drummer said the Foos’ material “wasn’t music that I really resonated with”. He returned to Nine Inch Nails in August for their North American ‘Peel It Back’ tour.
Upon dropping ‘Today’s Song’, Grohl thanked every former member of the band for their contributions throughout the years. He praised “the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese”, and said Hawkins was “still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever”.
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