Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne checked out the Preservation Hall courtyard gig
Foo Fighters played a surprise show in New Orleans last night (May 17).Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne checked out the Preservation Hall courtyard gig and also joined the venue's legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band onstage for a rendition of traditional New Orleans song 'Iko Iko', as the jazz band opened up for Dave Grohl's group. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band later joined Foo Fighters onstage with musician Trombone Shorty for a brass-assisted rendition of 'This Is A Call', reports Consequence of Sound.
Grohl discussed the recording process for the Foo Fighters' new album with the crowd during the 90 minute long gig, which shut down a whole block of the city. "We've been to a lot of great places, we've jammed with a lot of great people," said Grohl. "But this week in this city has changed our band forever." The band had been recording with producer Butch Vig in the venue prior to the show.
Foo Fighters will release their new album this autumn. The record will feature a host of special guests from eight cities in the US and an eight-part TV series for HBO will document its making.
Each of the eight episodes of the HBO show will see the band travel to a different US city to write and record songs for the album: Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Washington, DC and New York. In each location, they have visited - or will visit - a renowned studio to record a track for the album, that Grohl describes as "a love letter to the history of American music". Each song is to feature local musical figures, and every lyric will be written on the very last day of each session. Guests include Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy.
Earlier this month, the band played a career-spanning set at Washington DC's 9.30 Club. Last month they shared pictures of the recording sessions for their new album.
