Recently discovered video footage of the fourth concert ever performed by Foo Fighters has been posted online, making it the earliest known live documentation of the band.
The March 4th, 1995 concert took place at Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge in Seattle. The footage was captured by a Nirvana fan named Travis Stanley, who misspelled the name of the band as “Food Fighters” on his camcorder’s title card. While Stanley's video failed to record any sound, audio of the performance was captured by another fan named Ryan Fox and synced with the video.
The 42-minute set contains a number of songs that would become popular tracks on the band's debut album, including “Big Me,” “Alone + Easy Target” and more, as well as rarities such as “Butterflies” and “Winnebago.”
Bassist Nate Mendel was one of the first musicians to join the lineup and told us how he first met main man Dave Grohl: “He'd come to see my old band play and, I don't know, I was intimidated because I didn't know anybody that was successful in music or, I mean, he was just famous in general at that point in time. So I was just scared. Wasn't really super confident in my playing and was excited at the idea of doing the band, but like while we were trying out, it was very — it was kind of nerve-wracking, you know. I mean, he's a very personable, easy guy to be around, but nonetheless, I mean, Nirvana was casting a pretty huge shadow.”
2020 is looking more and more like one big year-long celebration of the Foos' 25th anniversary. In addition to this new video and the band itself recently commemorating the anniversary of its first show, Foo Fighters will headline the D.C. Jam festival on July 4th in Washington — a quarter of the century to the day that the self-titled debut LP was released.
A trek through some of the band's earliest tour stops is also on the menu for this year, along with a brand new studio effort and a Dave Grohl-directed documentary about van touring.
