The second and final tribute concert for the late great Taylor Hawkins happened earlier this week (September 28), with a massive list of even bigger names performing over the night at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.
Unfortunately, the concert wasn’t live-streamed, but it was documented plenty, so we’ve got the full recap of nearly 50 songs played by over 51 artists for you here.
Dave Grohl kicked off the night with a speech about why they decided to throw the concerts and encourage the audience to do what Hawkins would have done - rock out.
“We started working on outing both of these shows together a long, long time ago,” he said. “Because what we really wanted to do was pay tribute to Taylor in a way that you could sort of spend some time in his musical mind.”
“Just as with the show in London, we’ve all gathered here to celebrate this person that has touched our lives - whether from afar, or for all of his friends and family and loved ones, and musicians buddies and heroes who are here tonight.”
“If any of you ever had the blessing of spending time with Taylor you know that that dude could make you smile and dance and laugh and sing,” he continued. “So what’ve done is bought an even crazier cast of characters for you tonight.”
Dave Grohl’s daughter Violet then hit the stage alongside Alain Johannes for a touching rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’.
After that, the Foo Fighters, Travis Barker, and Joan Jett performed the a cover of ‘Cherry Bomb’ by the Runaways and ‘Bad Reputation’.
Chevy Metal performed a few songs, followed by Coattail Riders alongside Josh Freese and Justin Hawkins.
Joe Walsh then reunited with the band he was with before the Eagles, the James Gang. They did a few songs together, including ‘FUnk #49 with Dave Grohl helping them out on the drums.
Mark Ronson, Andrew Watt, Roger Manning, and Grohl then performed a cover of ‘Right On Down the Line’ by Gerry Rafferty.
Supergroup ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ consisting of Grohl, Josh Homme, Alain Johannes, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones then reunited to treat fans to three songs: ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ by Elton John; ‘Dead End Friends’; and ‘Long Slow Goodbye’ by Queens of the Stone Age.
One of Hawkins’ favourite bands was Van Halen, so it’s fitting that the son of Eddie Van Halen, Wolfgang, took the stage - fifteen years to the day, and at the same venue, since he first performed with his dad - and did a couple of songs with Josh Freese, Justin Hawkins, and Grohl. They covered the Van Halen songs ‘Panama’ and ‘Hot for Teacher’.
Def Leppard then rocked out, performing ‘Rock of Ages’ before teaming up with Miley Cyrus for a rendition of ‘Photograph’.
Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Derek Day followed them before The Cars’ Elliot Easton joined Josh Homme.
P!nk then linked up Nancy Wilson and Jon Theodore to play ‘Barracuda’ by Heart.
A couple of Police songs were then played by Stewart Copeland, Jon Davison, and the Foos - ‘Next to You’ and ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’.
Alanis Morissette, Chris Chaney and Chad Smith performed ‘You Oughta Know’ together before Sebastion Bach, Geezer Butler, and Lars Ulrich covered Black Sabbath’s ‘Supernaut’ and ‘Paranoid’.
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson from Rush performed a couple of their classics, with Grohl, Chad Smith, and Danny Carey helping them out. The one and only Jack Black introduced them before they played ‘2112 Part I: Overture’, Working Man’, and ‘YYZ’.
Members of Soundgarden played with the Foo Fighters - as well as Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, and Taylor Momsen of Pretty Reckless - performing ‘The Day I Tried to Live’ and the classic ‘Black Hole Sun’.
Brian May and Roger Taylor were the penultimate act of the night. The two were joined by P!nk and Justin Hawkins as they played ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘I’m in Love With My Car’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Somebody to Love’, and ‘Love of My Life’.
Finally, the Foo Fighters hit the stage, joined by many, many guests. They performed 11 songs, all listed below. Shane Hawkins, Taylor’s son, joined them for a couple. Even Dave Chappelle led the crowd in a rendition of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’.
Foo Fighters Set List:
- "All My Life" (with Josh Freese)
- "The Pretender" (with Pink and Jon Theodore)
- "Walk" (with Travis Barker)
- "Low" (with Matt Cameron)
- "This Is A Call" (with Brad Wilk)
- "The Sky Is a Neighborhood" (with Pat Wilson)
- "Creep" (Radiohead cover, with Dave Chapelle and Pat Wilson)
- "Run" (with Omar Hakim)
- "Best Of You" (with Rufus Taylor)
- "My Hero" (with Shane Hawkins)
- "I'll Stick Around" (with Shane Hawkins)
- "Everlong" (with Chad Smith)
