Foo Fighters VIP Lupo's Show, September 8, 1999

The Foo Fighters did another 'surprise' show in Providence, RI last night to showcase new guitarist Chris Shiflett in front of some contest winners and Gravity Games VIPs. It was their first full set with the new guitarist and only their second live show performing with him. NYC's Girls Against Boys opened the evening and got the crowd loosened up. The show was announced days before on local radio and on the Foo Fighters new official website. A few hundred contest winners mingled with Gravity Games athletes and workers.

Dave Grohl

Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel was done over for the Gravity Games festivities and throughout the night movies of extreme sports were shown in the back of the club. The set lasted over an hour and a half and featured four songs from the forthcoming "There is Nothing Left to Loose."

Taylor Hawkins

The new songs showed that the Foo Fighters haven't strayed from their previous material. Although they opened with the slower "Stacked Actors," the other new songs "Breakout," "Learn to Fly," and "Gimmie Stiches" fit quite well with Foo favorites like "This is a Call," "Monkey Wrench," and "I'll Stick Around."

It may have been their second live performance but the Foos were still tight and on the money throughout most of the set. Dave Grohl joked throughout the night, telling stories about playing a Miller Genuine Draft show and getting drunk enough to play "Carry on My Wayward Son," which he did a riff or two of, and introducing "Gimmie Stiches" as a song that sounds similar to "Slow Ride."

Chris Shifflett seemed to hold his own and played a very competent set for a guy whose been in the band for a few weeks. Most of the crowd had no idea he was new until Dave introduced him a few songs into the set. Other band members, bassist Nate Mendel and Drummer Taylor Hawkins, pounded out the songs in their usual fervor and seemed to have a good time. Since the crowd was full of Gravity Games VIPs it was a loose evening at Lupo's.

New Guitarist Chris Shiflett

The mosh pit seemed to consist of about 25 people who were the die-hard fans. They never really got a pit going but they were enthusiastic enough to get security to send a guy up to keep an eye on things. The rest of the 700 or so people mingled around the floor and the balcony drinking and talking about what a score it was to see the Foo Fighters in a club like Lupo's. Only a few people seemed interested in the extreme video display that seemed to have old surfing movies on every time I went to the bathroom.

Dave Grohl

The Foo Fighter's set list was: "Stacked Actors," "My Hero," "For All the Cows," "Breakout," "Learn to Fly," "This is a Call," "Gimmie Stiches," "Monkey Wrench," "Hey, J.P.," "Alone + Easy Target," "Everlong." For encores the band did "A320," and "I'll Stick Around." Girls Against Boys did their best to impress the crowd with their sort of low-end power-drive-through rock and roll. The four piece featured two bass players for some songs, and some cool, smooth, indie rock. In a way it reminded me of both Jonathan Fire*Eater and the Cramps, but I don't know why.