So! and I took a trip to the East Bay last week to catch the Red Hot Chili Peppers live at the Oaktown Coliseum. We have a thing about not having any interest in seeing bands perform at professional Basketball arenas, but it was the Chili Peppers and we did have kick ass seats, so we went. The show had all of the makings of a sterotypical big rock concert: super loud soundsystem, huge light show, overpriced food and drinks, drunk teenagers being escorted out because they just booted all over 3rd row, 20-something ho's flaunting their muffin tops, 30-something heshers trampling all over the women and children, 40-something dads with their teenage kids and a band who fits somewhere in between.

The concert was good for what it was, but I wouldn't dare to go as far as saying that it was great. For a two hour long show, it lacked the spontinaety and song selection that I would have expected. Oh, they played some kick ass songs, but all but two of their own songs came off of Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium. Let's see, by my count that leaves 6 (YES, SIX) albums virtually untapped. Ok, ok, so according to John Fruciante, One Hot Minute doesn't count as a Chili Peppers album (which is a bunch of bullcrap if you ask me, but I can rant on that some other time), but still, that means that almost all of the band's first sixty plus songs went unaccounted for. That's weak if you ask me. I mean, I realize that artists must get sick of performing the same songs again and again, but when you have a catalog as deep as the Chili Peppers, then that excuse just doesn't cut it. Everyone bags on 311 for becoming too poppy and soft, which I agree with to a certain extent. But go and see them live. They'll play their new stuff, but they'll always always always throw in old stuff all over the place. I guess the difference is that they know where they came from and aren't going to deny themselves or their fans that part of them.
Which brings me to something else that I painfully realized the other nite: the Red Hot Chili Peppers is no longer the Flea and Anthony show, it is now the John Fruciante Experience. Why do I say that? Let's see: 1) gratuitous mouth-agape guitar solo every single song, 2) backup/harmonizing with Anthony as often as he can, 3) doesn't leave the stage when the rest of the band takes a break, but rather, plays & sings a solo song that doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the band's set, 4) when jamming with Flea & Chad, does whatever he can to make sure that he's driving the jam and 5) refuses to play any tracks off of One Hot Minute, which he didn't play on because he quit the band and was off shooting up Southern California's supply of Columbia's finest (oops, I wasn't supposed to mention that one again.). I still think the dude's a musical genius, but he needs to back off a bit. Sure, he missed out on most of the 1990's and he probably feels that he needs to make up for lost time, but enough already.

All that being said, I'm glad that So! and I went to see them. When they were on that nite, they were on. Highlights of the evening, off the top of my head, include the set opener "Can't Stop", "Throw Away Your Television", "Soul to Squeeze", "Californication" and "Readymade". Cool partial covers that they rocked included "Radio Clash" and "You're Gonna Get Yours" off of Public Enemy's very first album (why they would play such an old P.E. song but won't think about touching one of their old tracks is beyond me. But I digress...). Hands down the best 3 and half minutes of the nite for me was when Flea stepped up with a bass crunching intro solo and the band rocked it right in to "Nobody Weird Like Me" off of Mother's Milk. As I looked around while the head was being ripped off of that song, the teens, 20-somethings and 40-somethings were all standing there wondering where this one came from, while me and the 30-something heshers knew exactly what was going down. Siiiiiiiiiiiiick.

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