Today wrapped up a weekend of big-ticket performances at the concurrent Reading and Leeds music festivals in the U.K., with some particularly newsworthy highlights over the three-day run coming courtesy of a trio of American acts: Green Day, the Foo Fighters and notorious L.A. rap collective Odd Future.
– Billie Joe Armstrong and co. hit the Reading Festival with a “surprise” appearance on Saturday, though rumors that the pop-punk act would be performing their breakthrough album “Dookie” in its entirety proved to be unfounded. Nevertheless, the rockers did manage to play five tracks from the 1994 LP, with favorites including “Welcome to Paradise,” “Basket Case” and “She” included in the set. The wide-ranging performance featured tracks spanning the entirety of their (major-label) career, in addition to highlighting two tunes from “Uno!,” the first part of the group’s forthcoming three-album trilogy. One of these was a never-before-heard track titled “Stay the Night,” and you can check out their performance of the song at the bottom of the page.
– The Foo Fighters, meanwhile, wowed the Reading Festival audience this evening with a whopping two-and-a-half-hour, 26-song performance that saw a reflective Dave Grohl commemorating both the conclusion of the band’s “Wasting Light” tour (“It’s the last show of the tour and it’s the last show for a long time,” he stated as they took the stage) and the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s headlining slot at the 1992 incarnation of the festival. Though rumors that Grohl would be covering one of the band’s tunes proved to be unfounded, he did dedicate a performance of recent Foo Fighters single “These Days” to his former bandmates, stating: “I’d like to dedicate this song to a couple of people who couldn’t be here tonight. This one’s for Krist and this one’s for Kurt.”
– The vibe was radically different over at Odd Future’s closing-night Leeds Festival performance, which saw the group once again courting controversy by dragging a bound-and-gagged blow up doll named “Kimberly” on stage and proceeding to beat the tar out of it whilst hurling some choice invectives “her” way. The spectacle – which followed Tyler, the Creator and Left Brain’s tussle with security guards during the group’s Reading performance the previous night – climaxed with Jasper Dolphin busting the doll’s head open with his foot while proclaiming: “Sh** I just killed Kimberly.” The group also performed some songs.
Thoughts on any of the above performances? Sound off below.
Green Day perform “Stay the Night”: