The record resurfaced in conversation during rehearsals for the band’s Everything or Nothing at All tour, which kicked off its European leg last night, and found its way onto the setlist
The life cycle of a Foo Fighters song doesn’t always end with a track being recorded, released, and performed on tour. They have records that have made it onto albums, but never onto a tour setlist. They also have some that never made it past the early recording stages, but have been performed live on tour — this is the case for “Unconditional,” a demo the band largely forgot about until they began rehearsing for their current run of live shows. Thursday night, at the Everything or Nothing at All U.K. tour opener in Manchester, they debuted it live.
In a statement to the press, representatives for the Foo Fighters describe “Unconditional” as “a darkly melodic earworm partially written and demo’d during home studio sessions years ago — but ultimately left unfinished.”
On the song, Dave Grohl sings, “Find a better way to explain this to you/There are better days awaiting, it’s true/The clock is ticking, it’s back and forth/All those memories worth saving/For what it’s worth, I’ll find a better way to explain this to you/There are better days awaiting, it’s true/Under one condition, though/It’s unconditional.”
The statement continues, “The band’s rediscovery of ‘Unconditional’ happened in true spontaneous Foo Fighters fashion: The song came up in conversation during rehearsals for the UK tour, and all it took was one run-through — The decision was made instantly to share it with everyone in the same way — live.
Foo Fighters hope that the Manchester crowd was as pleasantly surprised to hear ‘Unconditional’ as the band was that they made it through the song with so few mistakes.”
Foo Fighters opened the U.K. tour leg at Manchester’s Emirates Old Trafford stadium to a sold-out crowd of 50,000 attendees, and will pack the same room tomorrow night. “Unconditional” appeared deep in the setlist, just after “All My Life” and before “Aurora,” which the band dedicated to the late Taylor Hawkins. The set also featured songs from But Here We Are, the 11th studio album from Foo Fighters released last June.
