Foo Fighters concerts generally take place at arenas and stadiums these days, but during the past couple of weeks, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers have been playing a series of pop-up club shows around the U.S., announcing them on short notice. The latest venue to host a surprise show was Toad’s Place, a historic music venue in New Haven, Connecticut, on Tuesday, September 23.
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The Foo Fighters announced the gig on the afternoon of Monday, September 24. Tickets, which cost $30 and were only available at the box office, quickly sold out for the 1,000-person capacity club. Toad’s Place has been around for 50 years, and has been the site of thousands of shows, including famous surprise gigs by The Rolling Stones in 1989, Bob Dylan in 1990, and Jack White in 2024.
On Tuesday, Dave Grohl and company hit stage at about 8:20 p.m. and basically blew the roof off the joint. Early on, Grohl acknowledged that the Foos were celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. He also noted that the band had “a lot of f—ing songs,” promising a long show that “might take hours and hours and hours and hours.”
Foo Fighters proceeded to play for two-and-a-half hours, offering up a career-spanning, 28-song set that touched on nearly all of the band’s studio albums. Classic hits were mixed in with fan favorites, deep cuts and rarities.
The Toad’s Place set was similar to, but not the same as, Foo Fighters’ three previous pop-up shows. Those gigs took place on September 13 at Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California; September 15 at The Observatory, Santa Ana, California; and September 21 at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C.
More About the Toad’s Place Concert
The concert began with “Enough Space,” a hard-pounding song from Foo Fighters’ second album, 1997’s The Colour and the Shape. Prior to the 2025 club shows, the band hadn’t played the tune live since 2017. Next was the 2002 hit “All My Life,” from the One by One album, followed by the 2011 rock-radio chart-topper “Rope,” from 2011’s Wasting Light.
The Foos then played two more songs from One by One, “Have It All” and the melodic hit “Times Like These,” which had the audience singing along.
An impressive aspect of Grohl’s performance throughout the concert was his ability to produce earth-shaking screams seemingly without it affecting his singing voice.
Among the many other popular songs the Foo Fighters’ played during the main part of the concert were “The Pretender,” “Walk,” “These Days,” “My Hero,” “Learn to Fly,” and “Best of You.”
Before performing “My Hero,” Grohl dedicated the song to Toad’s Place for hosting the show and keeping the surprise gig a secret.
The concert included renditions of five songs from band’s 1995 self-titled debut album, including “This Is a Call” and the pop-rock gem “Big Me.” After playing the latter tune, Grohl strummed through the chords and said he realized they were the same as another famous song. He then kicked into an impromptu abbreviated version of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
“I’m surprised [Prince] didn’t sue the s— out of us for this one,” Dave quipped.
Among the deeper cuts played were “La Dee Da,” “White Limo” “Aurora,” “No Son of Mine,” and “Shame Shame.” For “No Son of Mine,” from the 2020 album Medicine at Midnight, the band included a segment of the Motörhead classic “Ace of Spades.”
The newest song performed during the show was “Rescued,” from the Foos’ latest album, 2023’s But Here We Are.
Other Highlights and the Encore
Throughout the show, the crowd showed particular affection for longtime Foo Fighters rhythm guitarist Pat Smear. Multiple times the audience chanted, “Pat F—ing Smear!” After Grohl sang “Purple Rain,” Grohl pointed out that Smear had appeared in the video for Prince’s 1985 hit “Raspberry Beret.”
Before joining the Foos, Smear had been a founding member of the legendary Los Angeles punk band The Germs and a touring member of Nirvana.
The chants for Pat prompted Dave to get the crowd to do a similar chant for drummer Ilan Rubin. Rubin, a longtime Nine Inch Nails touring member, was announced as the Foo Fighters’ new drummer in July, replacing Josh Freese.
Near the end of the concert’s main set, the Foo Fighters played the rarity “Winnebago.” The song predates Foo Fighters, and was first recorded by Grohl in 1992 under the moniker Late! while he was a member of Nirvana.
After playing an inspired version of “Best of You,” which had the crowd singing along, the Foos left the stage temporarily. They then returned for a six-song encore.
The band began the finale with two rarely played songs from Foo Fighters—“Weenie Beenie” and “Alone + Easy Target.” “Low,” from One by One, followed before the Foos rocked the club with their 1997 hit “Monkey Wrench.” During the latter tune, Rubin got to display his drum talents with a furious solo.
Grohl then announced that the band was going to end the concert with a song that they always used to finish shows with back in day. Foo Fighters proceeded to play “Exhausted,” the final track on the band’s debut album.
The concert wasn’t really over, though. Grohl launched into the 1997 Foo Fighters classic “Everlong,” sending fans off into the New Haven night well-rocked.
Foo Fighters’ Upcoming Tour Plans
No word yet if or when the Foo Fighters plan to play another pop-up club gig.
Meanwhile, the band currently has seven confirmed upcoming international concerts on their 2025 tour schedule.
The shows will take place October 2 in Jakarta, Indonesia; October 4 in Singapore; October 7 and 8 in Tokyo; October 10 in Osaka, Japan; November 12 in Monterrey, Mexico; and November 14 in Mexico City.
Foo Fighters Set List, Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT – 9/23/2025
- “Enough Space”
- “All My Life”
- “Rope”
- “Have It All”
- “Times Like These”
- “Stacked Actors”
- “La Dee Da”
- “White Limo”
- “These Days”
- “The Pretender”
- “Walk”
- “My Hero”
- “Learn to Fly”
- “Rescued”
- “Aurora”
- “Big Me”
- “Purple Rain” (Prince cover)
- “This Is a Call”
- “No Son of Mine” (with snippet of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades”)
- “Shame Shame”
- “Winnebago”
- “Best of You”
Encore:
- “Weenie Beenie”
- “Alone + Easy Target”
- “Low”
- “Monkey Wrench”
- “Exhausted”
- “Everlong”
(Photo by Andi K. Taylor)
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