Billboard rounds up the highlights for one of the most uniquely presented gigs of the Foos’ decades-spanning career.
(L-R) Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Dave Grohl, Ilan Rubin, Rami Jaffee and Pat Smear of Foo Fighters perform during Amazon Music Live Season 4 at East End Studios on October 30, 2025 in Glendale, California.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Amazon Music
Last night, the Foo Fighters delivered a high-octane “cage match” style performance for the season-four kick-off of the Amazon Music Live series (filmed at East End Studios, Glendale, CA) immediately following the national broadcast of Thursday Night Football on Prime Video.
The set was the latest to highlight the drumming prowess of the band’s new percussionist IIan Rubin, who was joined by Foo Fighter’s iconic frontman Dave Ghrol for a special in-the-round jam session that had the band face each other. Instead of performing atop a proscenium stage or their usual festival-sized scaffolding, the band performed on the floor — literally surrounded by the audience — in a compact circle of amps, cameras, and fans just a few feet away.
Fans encircled the group in standing-room clusters, and camera operators weaved through the crowd, often shooting over shoulders and through guitar necks. The result was a 360-degree sense of immersion that made the show feel spontaneous and alive — more like a secret gig in a warehouse than a corporate livestream.
Grohl thrived in the environment. At several points he pivoted mid-song to lock eyes with fans behind him, shouting lyrics like he was in a basement punk show rather than on a billion-dollar platform. Guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear traded licks across the circle while bassist Nate Mendel kept the groove centered. The proximity of the players — and their constant awareness of being filmed from every direction — gave the performance an almost documentary feel.
See our roundup of the best moments from the concert below.
Billboard’s Live Music Summit will be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, click here.
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Hard-Charging Start
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}The show began just after 9:00 p.m. and opened with a hard-charging Ghrol running into the circular set before launching into “All My Life.” Visually, the lighting was crisp and punchy: reds and whites dominating, with flashes of strobe during the more aggressive numbers. For a live-streamed event intended to follow a major sporting broadcast, the aesthetic felt well calibrated and polished without being overproduced.
The band came roaring out of the gate. The interplay between the guitars and drums on “All My Life” felt especially tight in the in-the-round format, with frontman Dave Grohl eyeballing the camera and circling the crowd, as though the entire room were part of the stage.
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Groovy Change-Up
Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Amazon Music Trending on Billboard
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}The Foos followed with the more groove-driven “Times Like These,” shifting gears into a melodic moment meant to build connection with the engulfing audience. Grohl invited the audience (both live and streaming) to sing the “It’s times like these you learn to live again” line, and the intimacy of the circular setup meant cameras caught fan reactions practically shoulder-to-shoulder with the band. The arrangement left enough space for keys (from Rami Jaffee) to shine, giving it a textured lift.
The band followed with anthem “My Hero,” and delivered a performance for the faithful, injected with extra urgency. Grohl’s vocal delivery was hotter than expected for a televised gig, leaning into the “There goes my hero” refrain with gritty conviction. The mix emphasized the drums and bass more than usual, which made the verses land with heavier weight. In the round format, the refrain’s “ooooooh”s reverberated around the crowd in a way that made the space feel more alive than typical arena shows.
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‘That One Was for Lemmy!’
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}The band’s mid-set drop of “Nothing at All,” a newer song from its recent cycle, blended seamlessly with the more familiar catalogue. Ghrol even paid homage to Motörhead during “No Son of Mine,” with a tease of “Ace of Spades,” telling the audience, “That one was for Lemmy!” Ghrol and crew ended the set with a climatic blast that included “Best of You,” “Monkey Wrench” and finally show-stopper “Everlong,” bringing the set home with both emotional weight and sing-along power.
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Big Energy, Small Show
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}In terms of pacing, the band kept the energy elevated — very few lulls, and a one-hour, ten-minute set time — with the band treating the show less like a full stadium show and more like a lean, high-impact pop-up gig.
Symbolically, the format and set fit where the band is in 2025, returning to the stage last month after a brief hiatus. With another massive stadium tour supported by Queens of the Stone Age kicking off next August, Thursday’s performance felt like a conscious return to connection over spectacle — a nod to the band’s early-club DNA but with the precision of a veteran unit. For Amazon, it was a production flex; for Foo Fighters, it was a reminder that the most potent way to broadcast rock’s power is to shrink the room and turn the cameras inward.
