Last night, June 15, Foo Fighters performed a cover of Queen’s 1976 classic “Somebody To Love” during their first in-person concert since the COVID-19 quarantine began at The Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA. It was a bit of a warm-up show for the Madison Square Garden performance planned for this Sunday, June 20, which will be the renowned venue’s first full capacity gig coming out of lockdown.

Drummer Taylor Hawkins switched places with frontman Dave Grohl for the cover, with Hawkins coming out in front and Grohl taking over the kit. They mostly played a faithful version of the cover, especially paying tribute to Freddie Mercury’s iconic vocal performance. However, they drowned the piano part out with guitars for a more hard-rock rendition and played with the crowd a bit since they were all singing along to the background vocalists. Grohl also extended the breakdown near the end into a bit of a drum solo leading into the song’s epic finale.

A video of the performance begins with Grohl ribbing Hawkins for wearing board shorts to the show and for thinking that people wouldn’t want to hear songs that Hawkins sang from their discography, including “Cold Day in the Sun” from 2005’s In Your Honor and “Sunday Rain” from 2017’s Concrete and Gold. Hawkins humbly claims that’s the reason he convinced the group to cover “Somebody To Love” instead, although Hawkins has been in the habit of singing covers at many of their shows over the past few years, one of the last of which was Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing” earlier this year.

Another notable event surrounding the concert was the anti-vax protest that happened outside the entrance. Anti-vaxxers including former child star Ricky Schroder accused Foo Fighters of “segregation” and “discrimination” for only allowing vaccinated fans to buy tickets. The protesters carried signs reading statements like “Foo Fighters fight to bring segregation back,” “event for vaccinated only, unvaccinated not allowed” and “vaccine makers are exempt from liability.” 

Foo Fighters released their latest album Medicine at Midnight in February 2021 and were recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Along with the headlining tour dates they announced, they’re also set to play festivals including BottleRock, Lollapalooza and Boston Calling.

Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz