The celebrity and civilian-packed crowd for the New York Knicks’ unanticipated playoff run was just the beginning. Mere weeks later, The Foo Fighters ushered in the “post-Covid” era of live entertainment beyond sports at Madison Square Garden after Governor Cuomo’s lift on most social distancing and reduced capacity-related restriction mandates.
To purchase tickets to the famed arena’s first show in over 460 days, interested parties were still required to show proof of vaccination – much to the chagrin of many, specifically the antivax brigade protesting outside The Garden. But even the faintest tremor of blowback simmering on the peripheries could not turn the Big Apple the least bit rotten on Sunday night.
“We’ve been waiting for this! We’ve been waiting for the rock and roll…Do you want rock and roll?” longtime Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl exclaimed to thousands. His venue-wide salutation was met with a swift-and-resounding “yes” by the roaring masses. Deprived no longer, the attendees were eager and ready to be reminded by the alternative rock icons not to let anyone get the best of them, and that it’s “times like these” where one “learns to live again.”
Additional hits The Foo Fighters performed from their extensive discography include: “My Hero,” “The Pretender,” and the pitch-perfect choice to close out their encore slate, “Everlong.”
Another standout moment that made waves across the Internet was Dave Chapelle’s impromptu guest appearance on stage alongside the headlining act. Together, the comedian extraordinaire and his fellow famous buddies – not as random of a team-up as one may initially think, the pairing having collaborated on an episode of “Saturday Night Live” back in November – covered “Creep” by Radiohead. Despite the song’s inherent bleakness, it, like the soon-to-be-obsolete virtual shows made prevalent in the past year-plus, successfully rallied people together through, and subsequently past the darkness.
Grohl and his bandmates dedicated their well received set to longtime stage manager Andy Pollard, who died suddenly on Friday.
Though JoJo Siwa’s June 30 concert has been canceled, the across-the-board success of The Foo Fighters’ momentous night indicates Madison Square Garden will, in all likelihood, seek to book their next artist(s) for the expectedly abridged summer slate rather quickly.
