Foo Fighters Glastonbury 2023: A triumphant secret set from America’s best rock band
The Foo Fighters staged a mighty return to Glastonbury Festival as the American hard rockers performed a secret set at the festival’s Pyramid Stage.
The audience had less than an hour of preparation time between confirmation that ‘The Churnups’ were the Foo Fighters and making their way to the stage. Still, the crowd was easily the biggest of the day, with famous figures, including Paul McCartney and Guns ‘N Roses members Slash and Duff McKagan, on hand to see the set.
As the death metal logo for The Churnups melted away into the familiar Foo Fighters emblem, Dave Grohl and the rest of the band – guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, and drummer Josh Freese – took their respective places on stage. After a bit of crowd work, Grohl launched into ‘All My Life’ from 2002’s One By One, kicking off an hour-long set that barely had any time for anyone to catch their breath.
The Foos alternated between newer songs like ‘Rescued’ and ‘No Son Of Mine’ and classics like ‘Learn to Fly’ and ‘Best of You’. Grohl coaxed a number of singalongs out of the crowd, with classic throat-shredding choruses including ‘The Pretender’ and ‘My Hero’ getting the backing vocals of thousands of festival goers.
“You guys fucking knew it was us this whole time. You knew it was us, right?” Grohl playfully asked the crowd. “We’re not good at secrets”. Grohl mentioned that it had “been a long time”, with the Foo Fighters having previously played at Glastonbury in 1998 and 2017. The band were set to headline the 2015 festival, but Grohl broke his leg a few days prior, causing Florence + the Machine to fill in for them.
During ‘No Son of Mine’, Grohl and the rest of the band used the song as a platform to jump into a number one classic riff-rockers, including Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ and Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’. Grohl also welcomed his daughter Violet on stage to sing a tribute to Grohl’s mother Virginia, ‘Show Me How’.
However, the show’s biggest tribute came to former Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away in 2022. Just before the band finished their set with their signature song, ‘Everlong’, Grohl made a brief dedication to his departed bandmate.
“I’d like to dedicate this song to Mr. Taylor Hawkins,” Grohl said before finishing the band’s truncated set.“Let’s sing this one loud as shit for Mr. Taylor.” The crowd reacted by chanting Hawkins’ name. Makeshift signs in the audience were seen with Hawkins’ name on them.
The Foo Fighters have plans to return to Britain for the tour in support of their most recent studio album, But Here We Are, which Grohl confirmed on stage during the set. Check out the full setlist from their surprise appearance at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival down below.
‘The Churnups’ (Foo Fighters) Glastonbury 2023 setlist:
- ‘All My Life’
- ‘No Son of Mine’ (with snippets of ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Paranoid’)
- ‘Learn to Fly’
- ‘Rescued’
- ‘The Pretender’
- ‘My Hero’
- ‘Show Me How’ (ft. Violet Grohl and dedicated to Virginia Grohl)
- ‘Best of You’
- ‘Everlong’ (dedicated to Taylor Hawkins)
