Foo Fighters have turned their Summer 2020 25th Anniversary Tour into a Summer 2021 26th Anniversary Tour, since the original tour was postponed due to COVID-19. It was originally planned to retrace the path the band took on their original 1995 van tour, but at larger venues in the same cities as the smaller venues they had first played. The 2020 tour had already been significantly smaller than their 1995 tour, and some of the 2021 dates had to be canceled, so it’s now a much smaller six-date tour instead.

Although Foo Fighters won’t be playing any particularly small venues on this tour, they have still been fighting to support small venues through the documentary and through the Save Our Stages Fest that occurred remotely in October 2020. The venues they’ll be stopping at on the tour include The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center in Cincinnati, OH, American Family Insurance Amphitheater in Milwaukee, WI, Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO, Azura Amphitheater in Bonner Springs, KS, The Zoo Amphitheater in Oklahoma City, OK and Isleta Amphitheater in Albuquerque, NM.

None of the venues are the same as their original 2020 schedule, and some cities are even different, so it’s practically a new tour entirely. Tickets are available for presale until Thursday, June 3 at 10:00 a.m. local time for Citi card members, and will go on-sale after that. Foo Fighters promise more shows to be announced as well, which will be updated to their website.

In addition to commemorating their first tour, this 26th anniversary tour serves as a smaller Medicine at Midnight tour, because it will be the first dates on the road since they released that album earlier this year. They’re set to play a few major festivals coming up as well, including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and BottleRock. In other news of the band, Foo Fighters were among the artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

In April, frontman Dave Grohl released a documentary called What Drives Us, which examined the phenomenon of bands hopping in vans to go on their first tours, featuring interviews from several other major artists. Grohl said of the film, “This film is my love letter to every musician that has ever jumped in an old fan with their friends and left it all behind for the simple reward of playing music. What started as a project to pull back the curtain on the DIY logistics of stuffing all your friends and equipment into a small space for months on end eventually turned into an exploration of ‘Why? What drives us?’”

Missouri punk band Radkey will be opening for Foo Fighters on this tour. They released their third album in November 2020, called Green Room, which followed their first two LPs, Dark Black Makeup (2015) and No Stange Cats (2019).

Foo Fighters 26th Anniversary Tour Dates:

7/28 – The Andrew J Brady ICON Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
7/30 – American Family Insurance Amphitheater – Milwaukee, WI
8/3 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – St. Louis, MO
8/5 – Azura Amphitheater – Bonner Springs, KS
8/7 – The Zoo Amphitheater – Oklahoma City, OK
8/9 – Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, NM

Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz