Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett: ‘Intimate Venues Are Way Harder Than Stadiums’

Longtime lead guitarist, Chris Shiflett, of the Foo Fighters is heading to Australia and New Zealand shortly for the Foo Fighters' stadium tour, as well as three solo shows.

He became the Foo’s guitarist in 1999 following their album ‘There Is Nothing Left to Lose,’ and is bringing his alt-country and Americana-influenced brand-new album ‘Lost at Sea’ to Auckland for a ‘very special, intimate acoustic performance.’

“Touring Australia and New Zealand is always a blast and I’m excited it worked out to schedule these solo acoustic shows between the big ones,” he said when the tour was announced. 

Speaking recently to The Music, he said that he often wonders if his own shows are filled with “people that have heard my music” or punters who are “just curious because they know me from Foo Fighters”.

“I will tell you – the intimate venues are way harder, I grew up playing loud guitar, you know, in a band. So, when you go, and it's just you and an acoustic guitar, and you're in a little bar somewhere, it's super fun; I love it.

“The give and take with the crowd is a very different kind of thing, and people are shouting stuff and heckling [laughs], and they can be really fun, wild shows, even though you're just one dude playing an acoustic guitar, but yeah, they're fun. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't done a lot of acoustic gigs lately, but I did do a couple recently, and it reminded me how much I enjoy that dynamic.”

Chris also caught up with Tracey to talk more about the new album and how the crossover between rock and country works.

"Yeah, I mean, you know, for me, my roots lie in rock and roll music. And then country music was something that I came to a little bit later."

"So I think as musicians, we all kind of like a lot of everything. And it just kind of all gets jumbled up I think the the longer you're making records and the longer you're playing, the more what you do just becomes the sum total of everything you love. And I listen to a lot of different kinds of music. So it all kind of gets in there."

You can listen to their full chat below on the GOLD A-Sides podcast!