Tiny Desk, Big Me
Dave Grohl credits seeing 12 members of Trouble Funk squeeze behind the desk as making him want to do it
Somehow NPR’s Tiny Desk managed to accommodate all six Foo Fighters on a recent office visit, where the group played a five-song set of hits and their Your Favorite Toy single, “Spit Shine,” which they opened with. The cluttered environment seemed to have no effect on the band, which is used to playing spacious stadium stages, as frontman Dave Grohl leaned into the mic to snarl, “You know I don’t really give a damn,” before the band took over with some melodic backing vocals. When they finished, they simply smiled, and Grohl joked about how the microphone is “the hardest instrument of them all to play.”
Then before launching into “Learn to Fly,” Grohl told the office how special this gig was to him. “It’s an honor to be here,” he said. “I’ve watched so many of these Tiny Desk shows and have a bunch of favorites. I have to say, when I saw Trouble Funk squeeze into this tiny little office space here, I was like, ‘It’s not that tiny.’ … But it’s great to be here.”
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The rest of the set list included Your Favorite Toy’s “Child Actor,” and two of the band’s most enduring hits, “My Hero” and “Everlong,” off their 1997 album, The Colour and the Shape. When they finished, Grohl leaned back into the mic and said, “Thank you, that was a lot of fun,” and the dozens of NPR staffers cheered and applauded.
Other than an appearance at BottleRock Napa Valley, the next time North American fans will be able to see the Foo Fighters is when they return for close to two months of dates in August, kicking things off at Toronto’s Rogers Stadium.