Foo Fighters are performing a front-row, VR show on Super Bowl Sunday. After the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals play in the big game, the Dave Grohl-fronted band will throw an immersive, 180-degree VR concert on Meta.
Featuring a custom-made stage, the Horizon Venues-hosted performance will see Foo Fighters perform their biggest hits, along with some often-skipped tracks. “Foo Fighters love a challenge — from playing the biggest stages in the world to the tiniest clubs to making movies and miniseries… We’ve pretty much done it all,” Grohl said in a statement. “But we’ve never collaborated with Mark Romanek on a conceptual set of songs (including one being played live for the first time ever) for a worldwide audience.”
The show — being streamed from Foo Fighters’ Facebook and Instagram and on the Horizon Venues app — will start on Sunday at 8 p.m. PT or immediately after the Super Bowl game ends, whichever happens first. “Join us when we cross that one off the FF bucket list!” adds Grohl.
The performance comes just several months after, amid a steady stream of backlash, Meta — the company formerly known as Facebook — made a pivot to focus on augmented and virtual reality, and the “metaverse.” Just three weeks before CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s late October announcement, a The Wall Street Journal report found that Facebook was well aware of how its platforms were helping the spread of misinformation and contributing to teenage girls’ self-esteem issues, and how the company was doing nearly nothing to stop it.
Last Thursday, Meta also revealed that it may have to shut down Instagram and Facebook in Europe if it isn’t allowed to transfer user data into the U.S., due to several data protection regulations in Europe. If changes in regulation aren’t made, “We will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe,” an annual report from the company read.
As for Foo Fighters, the group is set to go on a stadium tour this year and will perform at several major festivals across South America, including Brazil, Argentina, and Chile’s Lollapalooza. Grohl opened up to Rolling Stone last September about the future of the band and his optimistic approach to life. “I think also in life, you get trapped in crisis, where you imagine there’s no way out,” he said then. “When really, if you dare to consider that crisis a blip on the radar, it’s easier to push through.”
From Rolling Stone US
