After making a quiet debut at Ohana Festival in September, NHC played their first full show last night (November 23) at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. The supergroup, which consists of Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, Janes Addiction's Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney, played a 15-song set. The first half of the show was dedicated to songs off their upcoming debut album, including songs that have already been released ("Devil That You Know," "Lazy Eyes," "Feed the Cruel," "Better Move On") and songs that haven't. They then played a couple tracks from Hawkins' solo career (“Louise” and “Range Roger B***h”) before wrapping up the night with Queen and David Bowie covers, and a special guest.
The Foos' guitarist Pat Smear and backup singer Barbara Gruska, who doubled as the group’s drummer when Hawkins stepped away from the kit to front the band, played with NHC throughout; however, for the finale — a cover of Bowie's “Ziggy Stardust” — Hawkins' 14-year-old son Shane played drums.
“He’s a little f**king bad-ass,” Hawkins told the crowd as he was walking onto the stage. “That is for g*****n sure.”
During the performance, Hawkins changed the lyrics to, “He took it all too far / But boy can Shane play the f**kin’ drums.”
Watch the "Ziggy Stardust" cover above.
During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Hawkins revealed the biggest difference between writing music with NHC versus Foo Fighters.
“Foo Fighters is very much Dave’s band,” he said. “A lot of times, when we make a Foo Fighters record, Dave has demos that are pretty close to what he wants to hear. We just go in and fill in the blanks. Sometimes things happen jam-wise, but a lot of times, he has a pretty clear idea of what he wants.”
“NHC was the first time any of us have been in a situation writing-wise where we just throw the ball,” he continued. “It’s like playing catch, literally. A writing session or recording session for us is all three of us playing baseball in a backyard.”