It was almost a homecoming of sorts for the Foo Fighters, as the band returned to The Late Show with David Letterman to launch their new album, “Wasting Light," on the day of its release.
Letterman has previously praised the Foos as his favorite band; one of the group’s most memorable visits to the show was when David personally requested they play at his first show back following his quintuple bypass surgery in 2000. Letterman later revealed that that the Foos had been in the middle of a South American tour, which they canceled to play on his comeback episode.
Following the Tuesday Letterman show taping, the band played a 90-minute webcast as part of the Live On Letterman series.
The Foos don’t do anything half-way, and they went full throttle into their performance at the Ed Sullivan Theatre. With a salute to the hallowed ground of The Beatles’ 1964 Sullivan appearances, the webcast kicked off in black and white, while The Foos – dressed in Beatles-like suits – played on a retro-60s vibe stage set.
Following the pattern of their club gigs to date, the Foos barreled through “Wasting Light” from front to back, before playing a 45-minute greatest hits set. The producers did it up right, too: the Foos were in black and white for the new album, and the signal switched to color for the hits portion.
Dave Grohl spoke about the unbelievable heat in wearing the Beatles outfits and, midway through the show, took his shoes off because he said they were killing him.
The Foos kicked all kinds of ass on the webcast, showing that the veterans are fired up and ready to take on the world with their new music. We'll keep our eyes open for any video if/when it surfaces.
Foo Fighters Foo Fighters – Rope
The Late Show with David Letterman – April 12, 2011
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