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The line stretching around 15th Street towards Union Square in New York on Thursday was a familiar sight. Foo Fighters had done this exact same underplay — an intimate show at the 1,200-capacity Irving Plaza — in the fall of 2014, with roughly the same stand in line-style ticketing format and the intriguing promise of getting to see the stadium-ready Foo Fighters with much more immediacy. Back then, I cut class for the day, stood in line, but couldn’t manage to get tickets; on Thursday, I was there on assignment.
As their show last night suggested, a lot has changed for Foo Fighters in 12 years. The 2014 show arrived in support of Sonic Highways, a rather ambitious Foo Fighters album that came with an accompanying HBO documentary series; last night, they didn’t play any songs off that album. They very notably have a new drummer in tow — Ilan Rubin, who swapped roles with fellow rock drumming favorite Josh Freese in 2025. Last night felt like the Ilan Rubin show (more on that later), but whether it’s him or Freese, the ghost of the late Taylor Hawkins continues to make itself known in Foo Fighters shows large and small. Dave Grohl has acknowledged this and has referenced Hawkins’ unwavering presence in But Here We Are, the group’s bruised-and-broken 2023 cult favorite. They also didn’t play any songs from that album.
Instead, the Foo Fighters took the opportunity to celebrate their new album, Your Favorite Toy, performing six of the record’s ten tracks and busting out a live debut of the contemplative rocker “Window.” For the Foos, these songs appeared to be the largest focal point of the night; they were slightly rough around the edges, something Grohl acknowledged, but overall they were faithful and engaging displays of the new project’s most anthemic tracks. “Caught in the Echo” absolutely popped off live, with Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Grohl interlocking on the song’s syncopated guitar line and looking genuinely stoked to be playing these new tracks in concert.
But the more intimate venue also allowed Foo Fighters to unearth some deep cuts and really throw it back to the ’90s. They opened with “Winnebago,” one of Grohl’s first solo tracks, and kept the old-school vibe going through the encore with performances of “Exhausted” and “A320,” a song they apparently made for the 1998 Godzilla movie. The song — not the movie — holds up.
It has become a curious task trying to predict the band’s setlists these days, with certain pools of tracks completely ignored. The ‘deep cuts’ often emerge from the Foo Fighters’ first two albums, though last year they dusted off a few One By One tracks at an underplay; meanwhile, the band rarely, if ever, acknowledge songs from In Your Honor and Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace beyond “Best of You” and “The Pretender,” respectively. What’ll it take to get the band to throw “No Way Back” or “Let It Die” in the mix? How about the several slacker classics on There Is Nothing Left to Lose, like “Next Year”?
It’s terrific to hear Grohl’s 30-year-old tracks recontextualized, and luckily, the new album continues on the same sonic thread as those first two records; but if last night’s random “A320” breakout was any indication, a little more unpredictability is a lot more fun with the Foo Fighters. Grohl said it himself last night — they play a lot of songs during their shows because they, simply, have a lot of songs. So, bring on more deep cuts, Dave! Throw us for a loop!
Whether playing old songs or new tracks, the crowd for this Irving Plaza gig showed the fuck up for the Foo Fighters. There was a lot of moshing, a lot of crowd motion, and some serious sing-alongs. There were many, many crowd surfers, and a truly diverse age range of attendees. The response was so captivating that it led Grohl to share a story of when he himself crowd surfed at the Hollywood Palladium the second time he saw Iggy Pop live. He didn’t condemn the activity by any means, but he seemed so surprised by the response that he had to give the audience a directive to, more or less, ‘be cool.’
Helping fuel the crowd’s electric spirit was a towering, boisterous performance from Rubin behind the kit. The Foos were great with Josh Freese; there’s no doubt that he has the capability and spirit to be the drummer of a drummer’s band. But with a lot of Your Favorite Toy represented during the show, it became clear how much Rubin adds to the band’s dynamic. In Foo Fighters in 2026, Rubin not only has to execute Grohl’s meticulously crafted drum parts, but he’s also tasked with exhuming that same spirit and technical prowess as Taylor Hawkins. And then he has to pick up what both of them put down and make sure the drums on the new tracks align with Grohl’s sonic vision.
Last night, Rubin did all that and then some; the way he finds room to express himself in a band with a very specific rhythmic identity is the mark of a truly magnificent drummer. He also appears to be ambidextrous, a lefty playing on a right-oriented kit but pounding away with no detectable difference in emphasis. If you’re considering catching the band live this summer and fall on their massive “Take Cover” tour (we recommend, get tickets here), pay close attention to Rubin — he’s a force to be reckoned with.
Catching Foo Fighters in such tight quarters, with moshers and crowd surfers spinning a tornado in the center of the room and devoted fans taking in the band’s raw power, is an arguably purer experience than seeing them in a football stadium, an arena, a ballpark, or a festival field — the usual locales for the group’s shows these days. It was easier to connect to the lineage of their older track: the punk they grew up on, the jaded anthems from the early ’90s, the unfiltered energy and headbanging spirit. You have no choice but to surrender to their idea of rocking out, however primitive. It was a vivid reminder that Foo Fighters haven’t actually ‘aged out’ of anything; they just traded the garage for the stadium without ever losing the ability to play a club like they’re still 20-something punks with everything to prove.
Foo Fighters Setlist – April 30th @ Irving Plaza in New York City:
Winnebago (Late! cover)
All My Life
Times Like These
Caught in the Echo
Of All People
Stacked Actors
La Dee Da
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
Window
This Is a Call
No Son of Mine
Your Favorite Toy
These Days
Walk
Aurora
Monkey Wrench
Hey, Johnny Park!
Best of You
Encore:
A320
Spit Shine
Unconditional
Exhausted
Everlong
English (US) · 