Red Hot Chili Peppers: Monday, April 16, Acer Arena

This was a great show. I don’t think I even really need to say anything. I’ll just plagiarise my friend Pangle, quoted from his journal:

Warning! Contains Mild Profanity!

Went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert tonight. They TOTALLY ROCKED!!

As promised:

The journey to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers began way back in August last year, when Australian tour dates were announced. Several weeks later, we had our tickets bought and then all we could do was wait for last night.

The support act was Har Mar Superstar, and from what I had read earlier, no one had anything favourable to say about them. Hence me and Jacko decided to skip them and spend some time exploring Acer Arena. As Jacko said anyway, he didn’t pay money to see some shitty support act, he paid to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Our other companions including Ajay, Phil and Alex, for some reason decided to try their luck. Har Mar started at around 1945 and I soon received an sms, “You are missing absolutely nothing out here. Osmond must have been high. What are you doing?” and soon after, “Why is he taking off all his clothes? Why?” I tried to warn them…

The support act finished around 2020, and me and Jacko gave them at least ten minutes to get their crappy asses completely out of there before taking to our seats, and damn were they good seats. We were located on the right of the arena, and were up front at the second row of seating.

After several false alarms during which we had a massive Mexican wave going around the Arena several times, Flea, John and Chad took to the stage for the intro jam. Anthony soon joined them and then they kicked off with Can’t Stop. They played quite a few songs from Stadium Arcadium, and I’m not complaining; this is the Stadium Arcadium tour, and the more I listen the Stadium Arcadium, the more I’m loving it. Of course they also played some of their biggest hits, including Otherside, Californication and By the Way. The show was also punctuated by a few instumental jams here and there, including a great drum melody during Hump De Bump, where Anthony and Flea also took up the drumsticks.

The encore consisted of Chad and Flea on his trumpet jamming, and then two songs after that, which was a bit short. I would’ve liked a longer encore, and the whole show was about ten to fifteen minutes short of two hours. The sound at the Acer Arena was pretty good and it was nice and loud, but not deafening. Chad Smith was great on the drums whilst Flea did his great bass thing. Anthony Kiedis had apparently been a bit sick and whilst he definitely didn’t sound anywhere near his best, he was still damn good and lifted for By The Way. And John Anthony Frusciante? As we were leaving I saw some guys with “Frusciante is God” written on the back of their shirts, and that pretty much sums him up. Highlights for the night for me included: By The Way, I Could Have Lied during the encore, and pretty much John Frusciante, who was fucking awesome.

The Setlist:

Intro
Can’t Stop
Dani California
Otherside
Charlie
Fortune Faded
Impro
21st Century
Flea Solo
Throw Away Your Television
This Velvet Glove
How Can I Tell You (John Solo)
Snow (Hey Oh)
Me and My Friends
Don’t Forget Me
Hump De Bump
I Feel Love
Hey
Californication
Sunny (Flea)
By The Way
Encore Interlude
Flea and Chad Jam
I Could Have Lied
Higher Ground

I will add this: the RHCP audience wasn’t ready for Har Mar Superstar’s schtick. He’s a fake provocateur like Tenacious D but, unlike Tenacious D, he spends a lot of his show taking off his clothes and swearing at the audience. If he’s the sort of person who goes so far into creating his own legend that he has started to believe it, then that is scary indeed. My friend Osmond said that this is the stuff that he usually does at a show.
Talking himself up is all well and good, but abusing the audience (calling us all “motherfuckers” and telling a girl in the audience who gave him the finger “it means more when the person who’s doing it is being paid to be here. Fuck you, bitch,” and giving her the finger right back) is not on. I get the feeling that, yes, he has got his own share of abuse in Australia, but giving it back is quite unprofessional. Resorting to “I am so rich, I am being paid to be here!” is just cheapness.
Through all of the attitude, I couldn’t enjoy the music – which seemed to be a playback anyway. Maybe he’s good … but at a show like RHCP, he never stood a chance.