Watch Dave Grohl join The Breeders onstage in Texas to cover Pixies classic Gigantic

(Image credit: rawk YouTube)

As anyone who attended, or watched TV coverage of, this year's Glastonbury festival can attest, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl loves an onstage collaboration. Not content with playing Glastonbury's least secret secret set ever with 'The Chumps', the June weekender also saw Grohl play drums with The Pretenders, and join Guns N' Roses onstage to play guitar on Paradise City during their headline set.

So when Foo Fighters were booked as one of the headliners for this month's Austin City Limits festival, it was perhaps inevitable that the Texan audience would be treated to a bit of bonus Grohl on one of its nine stages... the only question was with who? The possibility of the Foo's main man popping up alongside Rina Sawayama, Little Simz or Shania Twain would have been thrilling, but in the end, it was The Breeders who got lucky on Friday the 13th, when a familiar face appeared onstage to help out Kim Deal's band on their cover of Pixies classic Gigantic, which Deal co-wrote and sang on the quartet's Surfer Rosa album. Grohl is a long-time fan of The Breeders, and has often cited the drum sound on the band's Steve Albini-produced1990 debut album Pod as one of the reasons he was excited to work with Albini on In Utero.

“We’ve had a good show so far Dave, okay,” Kim Deal joked before starting the song, a mock warning to her guest not to screw things up for her band.

Happily, Grohl rose to the occasion, supplying both riffs and backing vocals on what was The Breeders' first encore song of the night.

Watch fan-filmed footage below:

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Foo Fighters recently announced a US stadium tour for 2024, and a headline slot at next year's Hellfest in France.

Their 2023/2024 itinerary reads:

Nov 26: Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix, United Arab Emirates
Nov 29: Perth HBF Stadium, Australia
Dec 02: Adelaide Coopers Stadium, Australia
Dec 04: Melbourne AAMI Park, Australia
Dec 06: Melbourne AAMI Park, Australia
Dec 09: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia
Dec 12: Brisbane Suncorp Stadium, Austalia

Jan 20: Auckland Go Media Stadium, New Zealand
Jan 24: Christchurch Apollo Projects Stadium, New Zealand
Jan 27: Wellington Sky Stadium, New Zealand

Jun 13: Manchester Emirates Old Trafford Stadium, UK
Jun 15: Manchester Emirates Old Trafford Stadium, UK
Jun 17: Glasgow Hampden Stadium, UK
Jun 20: London Stadium, UK
Jun 22: London Stadium, UK
Jun 25: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK
Jun 27: Birmingham Villa Park Stadium, UK
Jun 28-30 (tbc): Hellfest, France

Jul 17: New York Citi Field, NY
Jul 19: New York Citi Field, NY
Jul 21: Boston Fenway Park, MA
Jul 23: Hershey Hersheypark Stadium, PA
Jul 25: Cincinnati Great American Ballpark, OH
Jul 28: Minneapolis Target Field, MN
Aug 03: Denver Empower Field at Mile High, CO
Aug 07: San Diego Petco Park, CA
Aug 09: Los Angeles BMO Stadium, CA
Aug 11: Los Angeles BMO Stadium, CA
Aug 16: Portland Providence Park Soccer Stadium, OR
Aug 18: Seattle T-Mobile Park, WA

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.