Last Night’s Foo Fighters Show Was Shut Down By Lightning Right As They Started To Play Everlong

The Foo Fighters played their first New York City show since re-opening the Garden in 2021 last night - this time outdoors, at Citi Field in Queens - and they unfortunately got called off stage about an hour and a half into their set due to lightning and thunder storms rolling into the area.

To make matters worse, they were given a heads up from somebody on the side of the stage that the show was about to be shut down, but they were told they could play one more song, so Dave Grohl informed the crowd of all of this and went right into Everlong (the band’s usual closer). While everyone was bummed by the weather, the second Everlong started, that entire stadium just lit up with energy - like we all knew this would be our last chance to sing along all night.

They only got to play about 30 seconds of it before having the plug pulled, however, giving about 45,000 rock n’ roll fans blue balls all at once.

Advertisement

Grohl promised the audience that if the storm passed quickly and they could get back on stage they would, and then the ‘EVACUATE’ signs lit up at Citi Field and I started feeling a few drops. Those drops quickly turned into torrential downpour unlike anything in recorded history (according to my own personal research) and a quick glance at the Weather app showed it wasn’t gonna stop any time soon, so I decided to high tail it for the exit instead of waiting around on the concourse. I knew there was no chance they’d be able to get up and running again, and of course, they weren’t….

Many fans in the replies are seeking partial or even complete refunds/a rescheduled date - but to me, that statement kinda reads like "This is a show fulfilled! Come back for Night 2 on Friday!” and I'm sure that's not from the band, but someone above them.

I was extremely lucky and fortunate for this to not only be my fifth Foo Fighters show, but also for the tickets to have been provided to me by Gametime (promo code STOOL gets ya $20 off your first purchase - terms apply) so I was a little bummed but honestly felt I’d seen a pretty great show and was satisfied by the time we got home. If this was your first Foo Fighters show and you saved up for months to get a ticket, though, I understand the frustration. It was clear the band wasn’t thrilled about the situation either - sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles with outdoor shows. Can't control Mother Nature.

Some random thoughts from the rest of the night….

-The Foo Fighters are just the best. They were so fucking good for that hour and a half they got to play, and have a catalogue so deep and full of hits that we still got plenty of what you'd want to hear before the rain….

Advertisement

-We missed out on songs like Best Of You, Monkey Wrench, and Everlong - but got All My Life, The Pretender, Times Like These, My Hero, Learn To Fly, etc. It was a great mix of new/old/greatest hits.

-Dave commanded the crowd like only he can, Chris Shifflet was shredding and providing awesome backing vocals all night with Nate, Josh Freese is a monster behind the kit and has found his place in the band perfectly, and Pat Smear and Rami were holding the vibes together as always. They're one of the last great rock bands of their era that still feel "in their prime" - even with a new drummer.

-We were craving a slice of pizza before the show so I said let’s take a walk on the concourse. I figured we’d find something quick. We entered here….

….and walked ALL THE WAY AROUND THE STADIUM to here….

There's only one pizza spot on the whole level! How crazy is that?! It was like 91 degrees and felt like 120, the concourse was some kinda claustrophobic boot camp drill, and after we finally got there and spent about 10min on line - they shut down and said beverages only because they were outta pizza. It was a bad omen for later on that I didn’t quite pick up on at the time.

Advertisement

-Do other countries just have different laws about playing through thunder and lightning? Metallica played through a storm just like this in May and it looked awesome….

-Some of my friends (really just one friend named Steve) are being ugly and saying "God is a Swiftie." and "Karma is the lightning at a Foo Fighters concert." - this is not nice.