The Foo Fighters launched their first tour with new drummer Josh Freese on Wednesday night (May 24) at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion at Meadowbrook in Gilford, N.H. The bittersweet evening marked the band’s first tour in a quarter century without beloved late drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died last March while on tour with the group in South America at age 50.
In his stead was recently revealed new timekeeper studio and touring veteran Freese (NIN, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle), who made his official debut behind the kit on Sunday during the “Foo Fighters: Preparing Music for Concerts” livestream event.
According to Blabbermouth, the 21-song set included the live debuts of four songs that appear on the band’s upcoming 11th studio album, But Here We Are, including set-opener and first single “Rescued,” as well as new songs “Under You,” “Nothing at All” and the title track. Before the show, the band posted a two-minute video of their stage walk-on at the Gilford show with the message “Thank you so much for coming. We’ve missed you.”
During the gig, Grohl introduced Freese to the Foo family, telling the crowd, “And that’s why we hired him… everybody, would you please welcome the man behind the drums, Josh Freese,” as the drummer stood up and saluted while wearing a black t-shirt with the words “Employee of the Month” across the front in red letters. “We would not be here to night if it weren’t for Josh, so everybody give Josh a big f–king round of applause please.”
The Foos’ next show is Friday night (May 26) at the Boston Calling Festival. On Thursday morning (May 25), the band released the nature-themed video for the third single from But Here We Are, the meditative “Show Me How.”
Check out fan video of the show below, the group’s stage walk-on clip and the “Show Me How” video below.
