Last night (October 28) Foo Fighters launched a countdown to Monday, November 23 on their website, which falls just four days after the end of their Sonic Highways World Tour comes to an end in Barcelona. In the hours since, a number of theories have been posted about what the countdown could be for. Here they are, in order of likelihood…
https://t.co/pFmFGUJgsX pic.twitter.com/zydmJICfdf
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) October 29, 2015
A NEW ALBUM
“You know what I did last night?” asked Dave Grohl earlier this month, during Foo Fighters’ headline slot at Austin City Limits, in Texas. “We recorded five fucking new songs in your beautiful city”. They didn’t play them that night – they haven’t since, either – but the announcement could herald the first new material from the Seattle five-piece in a year.
@foofighters new album?!!?!!?
— Christian Kingsland (@CKingsland1) October 29, 2015
@foofighters feeling this is a count down for the release of 5 songs they've recorded here in Austin???
— Richard Noriega (@R1chardNor1ega) October 29, 2015
MORE SPECIFICALLY, SONIC HIGHWAYS 2
Plenty of people have drawn comparisons between the Foo Fighters-branded crest and the famous highway sign for the trans-American Route 66. Perhaps they’re preparing to release the second of their Sonic Highways series, an album whose tracks were all recorded in different cities, taking in the different sound from each. It’s rumoured they’re setting this one in Europe. Could they have been recording it on the sly throughout their tour?
.@FooFighters To Make Major Announcement: More Sonic Highways? https://t.co/iWfy9anVfr pic.twitter.com/Czaa9yRVki
— Alternative Nation (@AltNationNet) October 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/Sophie_1983/status/659631227289358336
OR PERHAPS A TOUR ALONG ROUTE 66?
Again, because the symbol looks like the Route 66 sign, some fans are speculating a new Foo Fighters tour will run from Chicago in the Midwest to Santa Monica in California. Doesn’t seem like an announcement you’d wait 24 days to make, though.
https://twitter.com/BigMe233/status/659585047297695748
https://twitter.com/MJF9591/status/659584186437804032
A possible tour announcement could come alongside Beat The Bots 2.0 – another, perhaps improved version of the in-person sales techniques Foo Fighters employed to prevent mass buyouts of presales tickets by ticket touts’ bots last year.
Beat the Bots II? https://t.co/9p0TCpPO2r
— Bradio (@notTHATbk) October 29, 2015
SHOWS IN ASIA
If you click through to the website, you’ll see a Foo dog. Some fans think that could mean the band will be announcing dates in Japan, China, and elsewhere in Asia.
https://twitter.com/Aprilshack/status/659667853063385088
@foofighters announcing a show in China?
— podpod (@Sprigpod) October 29, 2015
AN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THEY’RE HEADLINING GLASTONBURY (OR MAYBE DAVE GETTING A HAIRCUT)
This tweeter knows where the guessing game leads. Haircuts aside, the Foos were famously forced to pull out of their Glastonbury headline slot this year – being replaced by worthy successor Florence + The Machine – after Grohl fell from a stage in Gothenburg, Sweden and broke his leg. Emily Eavis, the festival organiser has said she would “love” the band to headline in the future, and there were reports earlier this year that they’d already been booked for 2016. Definitely could be true, but probably not an announcement they’d hype quite so much, seeing as they broke the same news last year.
@jonnypg_GB @foofighters Sonic Highways 2? Glasto announcement? Dave having a hair cut?
— Lindsey Alder (@linds_alder) October 29, 2015
FIBONACCI DAY
The countdown clock ends on November 23 – in American dates, that’s 11/23. Which are the first four numbers in the Fibonacci sequence, and that’s is responsible for loads of stuff, including some of nature’s lovelier quirks, like the arrangement of leaves on a stem, or the formation of pinecones. Maybe Dave Grohl just wants to talk about stuff like the bee ancestry code and have everyone listen to him…
@linds_alder @foofighters by my calculations that's 23rd November? Dave's excited about Fibonacci Day!
— Jon Gibbon (@jonnypg_GB) October 29, 2015
THE REMOVAL OF DAVE GROHL’S CAST
It must be soon, yeah, but is Dave Grohl this much of a troll?
WHAT IF… @foofighters are just screwing with us, and the countdown is the day Dave's cast comes off…… #thingsthatmakeyougohmmm
— Ashley Gennett (@ashleygennett) October 29, 2015