Three hours into a sold-out show in Launceston, Tasmania, halfway around the world from the band’s Los Angeles home base, Dave Grohl casually dropped the kind of news that sends the rock world into a frenzy. Foo Fighters have finished their new album.
“We might have a whole new record of fucking songs that we just finished the other day,” Grohl told the crowd at UTAS Stadium on Saturday night (January 24), marking the first public confirmation that the follow-up to 2023’s But Here We Are is complete. The announcement came during the encore, just before the band launched into ‘Exhausted’ from their self-titled 1995 debut. Grohl, never one for grand pronouncements when a throwaway comment will do, delivered the news with characteristic nonchalance, adding, “I dunno!” for good measure.
The Tasmania show was the band’s only Australian date on the current leg of their ‘Take Cover’ tour, which launched in Mexico earlier this month. It marked Foo Fighters’ first performance in the island state in over a decade and their debut in Launceston. The three-hour marathon set carried additional weight as one of the band’s most significant Australian appearances since the 2022 death of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins. Grohl also hinted the band would return to Australia before his next birthday on January 14, 2027, suggesting new tour dates could arrive before year’s end.
But Here We Are, the band’s 11th studio album, arrived in June 2023 as their first release following the deaths of both Hawkins and Grohl’s mother, Virginia. The record debuted at number one in Australia and earned widespread critical acclaim for its raw exploration of grief and brotherhood. Since then, Foo Fighters have remained active, releasing the 30th-anniversary single ‘Today’s Song’ and follow-up track ‘Asking For A Friend’ in 2025, along with the live album Are Playing Where??? Vol. I, which captured their recent intimate club shows.
The band heads to the UK and Europe this summer for festival slots at Mad Cool and Pinkpop, plus two stadium shows at Liverpool FC’s Anfield on June 25 and 27. Support across various dates includes Royel Otis, Inhaler, IDLES, and Fat Dog. A North American stadium tour is also scheduled, though the band is currently without guitarist Pat Smear, who broke his foot in what he described as a “bizarre gardening accident.”
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