Foo Fighters: Tiny Desk Concert

VPM | By Robin Hilton

Published May 13, 2026 at 9:00 AM EDT

Like a lot of artists who play the Tiny Desk, the guys in Foo Fighters carefully curated and worked through their set for weeks leading up to their appearance, even taping out the dimensions of the Desk in a practice space to puzzle-out the close quarters. But once they were in the office, they tossed most of those plans. “If you put instruments in our hands and there are people,” Dave Grohl jokes, “it’s fun to play!”

For a better part of the last 30 years, Foo Fighters has worn the crown for stadium-sized guitar rock. But for this performance, the band shrinks down that outsized sound to something that fits perfectly behind the Desk, without losing any urgency or oomph. They open big with a banging take on “Spit Shine” from the band’s latest album, Your Favorite Toy, followed by “Learn to Fly” from 1999’s There is Nothing Left to Lose. They also include the introspective and quieter “Child Actor” (also from the new album), before closing out with “My Hero” and “Everlong,” both from 1997’s The Colour and the Shape.

SET LIST

“Spit Shine”
“Learn to Fly”
“Child Actor”
“My Hero”
“Everlong”

MUSICIANS

Dave Grohl: vocals, guitar
Pat Smear: guitar
Chris Shiflett: guitar, background vocals
Nate Mendel: bass, background vocals
Rami Jaffee: keys
Ilan Rubin: drums, background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

Producer: Robin Hilton
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

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Robin Hilton

Robin Hilton is the Senior Podcast Producer for NPR Music and hosts the New Music Friday episodes of All Songs Considered. He is also a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose original scores have appeared in podcasts, films, radio programs and other works. He arranged and performed the theme for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and composed and performed its elections coverage theme. You can hear more of his music here.

Prior to joining NPR in 2000, Hilton co-founded Small Good Thing Productions, a non-profit production company for independent film, radio and music in Athens, Georgia.

Hilton lived and worked in Japan as an interpreter for the government, and taught English as a second language to junior high school students.

From 1989 to 1996, Hilton worked for NPR member stations KANU and WUGA as a senior producer and assistant news director and was a long-time contributing reporter to NPR's daily news programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

Along the way, Hilton worked as an emergency room orderly, a blackjack dealer and a fruitcake factory assembly lineman.

See stories by Robin Hilton