Foo Fighters Make Hollywood Bowl Debut, Dust Off Rarities With Gustavo Dudamel and LA Philharmonic

Foo Fighters paused their Take Cover Tour on Saturday, August 22, 2026, to perform a one-off, 15-song concert with conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Philharmonic, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and a choir at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The show marked the first time the band had ever played the venue across more than three decades together.

• The concert was part of “Celebrating Gustavo at the Bowl,” a four-night tribute to Gustavo Dudamel’s 17th and final season as the LA Philharmonic’s music and artistic director.
• Dudamel is set to become music director of the New York Philharmonic starting with its 2026 to 2027 season.
• Foo Fighters revived three songs they had not played live in more than a decade, including one dormant since 2006.
• Rolling Stone reported the sold-out Bowl held a crowd of 17,500 for the performance.

Gustavo Dudamel’s Farewell at the Hollywood Bowl

The Foo Fighters date fell in the middle of a four-night run celebrating Dudamel’s departure from the LA Philharmonic after 17 seasons at the podium. His tenure with the orchestra was scheduled to close out the following night, August 23, 2026, with “A Concert For Venezuela,” a fundraising performance for earthquake relief in his native country that served as the finale of the four-night series.

Dave Grohl and Dudamel have crossed paths before this collaboration: Grohl joined Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic as a guest performer at Coachella in 2025, playing orchestral versions of “The Sky Is a Neighborhood” and “Everlong.”

Rare Foo Fighters Songs Return at the Hollywood Bowl

Backed by full orchestra and choir, the band worked a cluster of long-dormant tracks into the middle of the set. “I Should Have Known,” off 2011’s “Wasting Light,” got its first live airing since 2012, while “Razor,” an acoustic cut from 2005’s “In Your Honor,” returned for the first time since 2006. Setlist.fm data cited in coverage of the show puts that performance of “Razor” at just the 27th time the song has ever been played in front of an audience.

The band also brought back “Home,” from 2007’s “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.” Most accounts describe it as the song’s first live performance since 2007, though one outlet counted it as only the ninth time the song has ever been performed, and another noted it had surfaced just once in the previous 19 years, during a livestreamed virtual reality concert in 2022. Rounding out the deep cuts was “A320,” pulled from the 1998 “Godzilla” soundtrack, a song that originally carried string arrangements and slotted naturally into the orchestral format.

Dave Grohl’s Comments From the Stage

Introducing “Razor,” Dave Grohl told the crowd he had not played the song in a long while: “This is definitely something that we haven’t done in, oh my god, 15, 20 years? I don’t know. A long time. I practiced it this morning. Do we have some OG Foo Fighters fans out there? I recognize most of you. This song goes out to the OGs.”

After the band worked through “Home,” Grohl admitted the song has always been an emotional one to perform: “Whenever we played that song, there’s no way I could make it through without just bursting into tears.” He added that he wished the band could play with the orchestra “every night for the rest of our lives.”

As they have done regularly since drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death, the band dedicated “Aurora” to him during the set, with Grohl telling the audience, “He would have loved this.”

Foo Fighters’ Hollywood Bowl Setlist

1. Times Like These
2. All My Life
3. The Pretender
4. Walk
5. A320
6. My Hero
7. Learn to Fly
8. The Sky Is a Neighborhood
9. Run
10. I Should Have Known
11. Razor
12. Aurora
13. Best of You
14. Home
15. Everlong

Foo Fighters are due to return to their Take Cover Tour in mid-September, resuming their stadium dates across North America after the one-off Hollywood Bowl appearance.

More Info

• Deep Cuts, Hits, and a Choir: Foo Fighters’ Hollywood Bowl Debut Sends Off Gustavo Dudamel With a Bang | Rolling Stone
• Foo Fighters Play Rarities with Gustavo Dudamel and LA Philharmonic at One-Off Hollywood Bowl Show | Consequence
• Foo Fighters Bust Out Rarities At Hollywood Bowl | SPIN
• Watch Foo Fighters play rarities with LA Philharmonic Orchestra at Hollywood Bowl | NME
• Foo Fighters Play First-Ever Hollywood Bowl Show With LAPhilharmonic | Billboard
• Foo Fighters and Gustavo Dudamel Blow Up the Hollywood Bowl as Conductor Blows Out the Candle on His Time With the LA Phil: Concert Review | Variety Music
• Watch: FOO FIGHTERS Perform With LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC Orchestra At Hollywood Bowl | Blabbermouth