Dave Grohl is determined to be at the forefront of some post-quarantine firsts. Foo Fighters played the first Los Angeles stadium show of the pandemic era, with a closing set at the filming of “Vax Live” for a limited audience at SoFi Stadium May 2. Now, the band will headline the show at Madison Square Garden in 15 months, and sooner rather than later, with a gig just announced for 12 days from now.
The June 20 concert is being billed as the first 100% capacity show in any New York arena since March 2020. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. ET.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for over a year,” Grohl said in a statement announcing the news. “And Madison Square Garden is going to feel that hard. New York, get ready for a long ass night of screaming our heads off together to 26 years of Foos.”
That not-so-round number is a reminder that the Foos announced a 26th-anniversary-that-was-supposed-to-be-25th-anniversary tour on June 1. At that point, the tour kickoff was scheduled for a far-distant July 28 in Cincinnati July 28, before this fresh news moved its commencement by more than a month. Only six amphitheater dates were initially announced for that tour, although Foo Fighters are also booked for the upcoming Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Bottlerock festivals.
Grohl has hardly been absent from the media in recent months, even before live dates entered the picture. Foo Fighters’ delayed “Medicine at Midnight” album was released in June, and he’s subsequently been the star and producer of the Paramount Plus show “From Cradle to Stage,” announced a memoir, “The Storyteller,” and released a pandemic-themed single in collaboration with Mick Jagger.