'What songs did we not play last time?' Foo Fighters' third 'ACL' taping gave us deep cuts

Dave Grohl’s mother passed away during COVID, the Foo frontman told attendees of an “Austin City Limits” taping Thursday night at the Moody Theater.

“I would have to sit on this side of the glass,” he said of visiting her in the hospital. “I could see my reflection in her face.”

His candid moment setup new song “The Glass.” It was sobering from a rock star who loves to disrupt live performances with jovial ad-libbing, by taking requests, and inviting fans onstage to play music. (Tonight he asked if anyone wanted to sing “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys when bassist Nate Mendel began playing its gravel-textured ‘90s intro. No one obliged and Grohl admirably faked it for a verse.)

Is the band maturing? Only in appearance: Three members of the long-running ‘90s icons, guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, plus new drummer Josh Freese, boast varying shades of gray hair. Smear, a perpetually buoyant performer who cut his teeth in the ‘70s playing punk in the Germs, is somehow 64 years old. The Foos have entered the Stones zone of touring legends who reliably circle back to every global outpost.

But mostly, on this the band’s third “Austin City Limits” taping, Grohl was here to prove his new stuff is just as good as the “Colour and Shape” gems you skateboarded to while jeopardizing your Discman’s safety.

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“I looked at the setlist from last time,” Grohl said of the 2015 taping wherein he said the band performed a whopping 26 songs.

“What songs did we not play last time?” he added before promising “deep cuts” tonight.

The Foos delivered, savoring an opportunity to give the world-class videographer treatment to their less impactful album offerings: Motorhead homage “No Son of Mine,” 2017’s hard-charging “La Dee Da,” 1999’s “Generator.” And that included five songs from June’s “But Here We Are,” a stirring curtain call of a record that saw the band regroup after the sudden death of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins last year. (“Under You,” “Rescued,” “The Teacher,” “The Glass,” “Nothing At All.”)

Grohl performed and wrote the new songs’ drum parts, making it a return to form for a band built around his straightforward-like-Bonham bashing. New guy Freese, a longtime freelancer who has played with technical nerds like A Perfect Circle and populist romantics like Bruce Springsteen, channels Grohl’s passion-first, high-octane drumming in his Foo work. He also plays with a double-bass drum, showcasing a hard rock edge to proceedings. On 1995’s “This Is a Call,” Freese was cover-your-eardrums loud and precise as a tire pump; he’s the best Foo drummer to interpret that one. And an hour-and-45 in, Freese apparently played so hard he had to change out his ride cymbal.

Hawkins’ melodic, percussive and syncopated kit work left a hole, though. If there’s a throughline to the three Foo drummers it’s that their playing is driven. It makes 21-year-old hit songs like “All My Life” sound more fast and fresh. It’s rock so elegantly considered and executed that you think, “Wow can’t believe I ever considered watching Shania Twain or the 1975 at the festival instead.”

“I almost fell off-stage again,” Grohl said after “Generator.” He fell onstage in 2015, breaking his leg and wrapping the tour sitting down. He finished this infamous Sweden show, Grohl clarified. This time he promised he’d go “straight to the hospital” if it happened again.

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Last weekend at Zilker Park, the Foos remixed the drum-led “My Hero” into a tender ballad. They did so here too. And also to “Everlong,” a rock-out-at-the-drive-thru love song that wears its heart on its sleeve. So at the taping, no hard and fast drumming—only gentle strumming and vibes. It was gut-wrenching to endure as a fan who wants to hear it the way God intended: So fast one can barely air-drum along. It was like watching flag football.

It’s fine. Foo Fighters take requests and have a million noisy songs. Like “Best of You,” a sweeping hit they encored with. Pre-show, a cameraman told me that the setlist was a rough draft and that at some point the band would “play what we want.” I was hoping for a long night of encores in the spirit of the band’s chief directive: “Real human beings onstage,” as Grohl said about his accessible rock meant to inspire “the next generation” to pick up instruments.

No, just the aforementioned “Best of You.” The substitutions to the printed setlist the cameraman was reading off came at the halfway point, when Grohl went back to the ‘90s after he said the songs he was performing were too sad.

“Now I feel like we’re in someone’s backyard,” he said as the house lights came up. I dunno brother, I’ve been to plenty of house shows and they usually aren’t that loud.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Foo Fighters' 'ACL' live taping gave us new songs and 90s nostalgia