The Marvel Cinematic Universe must be filthy Medibank gets such good real estate at these gigs.
I’ve been a big fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers since the amazing By the Way came out in 2002, and last night I finally got the chance to see them live. With Frusciante back on board, I was really excited, having heard a lot of great things about their live show and having watched hours worth of clips with my mates growing up. They were good, but sadly, could have been so much more.
Firstly, the prices were abominable and I think put people off from the start. Initially, the cheapest tickets, GA, were $210. I got ours for $100 and they ended up as cheap as $79. $210 is a ludicrous amount to pay to see them, and how shit for the people who bought them at that price that they ended up less than half that in the days before the concert.
I’m not a huge fan of stadium gigs, and I, like every Melbournian, hate Docklands/Colonial/Telstra Dome/Etihad/Marvel. Stadium/big arena gigs are always better when artists make really good use of the staging, and RHCP’s setup left a bit to be desired. Three tall screens that had some good graphics at times but there was nothing special about them, and the band had a conventional setup on stage. Pretty hard to see them unless you were up close, although the screens did a good job of cycling through each of the band members. Flea looked cool as always, Chad Smith is a boss and a beast, Frusciante was his aloof-but-incredibly talented self, and Anthony Kiedis, who is and always has been the weak link, looked very ripped and in great shape for a 60-year-old.
They’ve copped pretty negative press on this tour so far, and from fans, all of it directed towards the setlist, and how they play “too many new songs” and “not enough hits”, but I don’t think that’s the real issue with this show. The sound, the band’s talents and musicianship are amazing, they sound fucking fantastic. The first 20 or so minutes was absolutely electric. The way Flea, John and Chad come out and do an improv jam at the top is unmatched and still exciting as hell. “Around the World” fucking rules. I was losing my shit to “Zephyr Song” which I’ve always loved.
But it’s from here on that the show begins to slide. From this point it felt really formless and it really isn’t just because there’s a lot of new songs. It’s an issue of structure and song choice. The “classics” that they played on this night were “Otherside” and “Californication” and while both of them were hugely well-received, they both just kind of appeared out of nowhere, both surrounded by new songs with very little signposting.
There’s almost zero crowd interaction. What there is is left up to Flea, and he’s an absolute legend, but Kiedis says pretty much nothing for the entire show. So we get 7 new songs, and some of them are fucking great (“Eddie”, a tribute to Eddie Van Halen, is outstanding) but a huge part of the reason they fall flat is that the band just meander from one song to the next, only occasionally punctuated by some instrumental improv work between Flea and Frusciante, or some solo Chad (these moments are absolute gold, and severely under-utilised). So the whole set just feels kind of aimless, it doesn’t feel like there is any narrative or like there’s any real thought been put into the song choices. This would be ok if you’re a smaller act with a smaller discography playing a smaller venue, but it becomes really obvious when you’re a huge, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-level act that is charging $200 and up for tickets. (I loathe to mention my boys U2, but they are absolute masters at this, and there’s a reason they are the second-highest-grossing live act of all time, only behind the Stones.)
That first 20 minutes, and moments like “Eddie”, “Right on Time” (with the “London Calling” snippet), “By the Way”, “Zephyr Song” and the various short improv jams, prove that RHCP have absolutely still got it, they still sound great, they’re still fucking cool, but this show is so let down by a lack of thought, care and structure. Song choice was a big issue, less what they did or didn’t play (although I was fucking shattered I went through it all and they didn’t play “Can’t Stop”) but more where in the show they played them and the lack of storytelling around it. It also felt like they left 5-10 great songs in the sheds, and I think it went about 1hr40 mins, so it felt really short too. “Give it Away” is also a bit shit and an awful way to close out the night.
It could have been a 10/10 show with some crowd interaction from Kiedis, or any of them, really, telling us about what they’re playing. Imagine if instead of just wandering through with their heads down, they’d told us shit! They’ve just released two new albums, Frusciante is back for the first time in over a decade, some of these new songs have great stories.
The great live acts make you feel part of the show. At last night’s gig it felt like we were being played to. I think the band has a right to bristle at the very simplistic feedback they’ve received on this tour, which has really boiled down to Gen Xers whining about the new songs, but the show felt very lacking.
There’s a great, great band, who sound great, and have the potential to still be fucking excellent live, right there. Some storytelling, more jams, more Flea/Chad/Frusciante time, a longer set, better song choices and structure and it would have been a fucking fantastic show. Ah well.
ramblings from djp 