Dave Grohl unleashes furious cover of Beastie Boys' "Sabotage"

Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters' producer Greg Kurstin's Hanukkah celebration of Jewish artists kicked off Thursday on Night 1 of the annual Festival of Lights.

After much speculation about the direction the pair was going to go for the 'Hanukkah Sessions' series. Grohl and Kurstin kicked off the affair with an effusive cover of The Beastie Boys' hard-rocking classic "Sabotage."

The pair explained the reasoning behind its inaugural cover in a brief statement:

"As the only Rock and Roll Hall of Famers with a lyric about kugel, we thought it would be a shanda to not kick off this party with New York's (and Abraham's) finest...known by some as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedenego, known by others as Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA...known by their Imas and Abbas as Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch...Beastie Boys!"

The cover was apparently recorded and filmed in one take, with Kurstin on synthesizer and Grohl playing drums and doing a shockingly accurate job approximating the original pitch and spirit Ad-Rock's vocals, Brooklyn accent included.

Grohl even plays part of the bridge one-handed after dropping a drumstick and does an impressive job of recovering, singing into his snare mic as he bends down to grab the lost lumber.

With such a strong debut, there's no telling what Grohl and Kurstin are going to come up with tonight.

As we mentioned yesterday, between greats like Rush, KISS, Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, Randy Newman, Neil Diamond and so many others, there's no shortage of material by Jewish artist that they can pull from.

This article was first published on iheart.com and is republished here with permission