RHCP & setlists
With eight previous albums and more than two hours’ worth of material on the new “Stadium Arcadium,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers have had their hands full working on repertoire for their North American tour. The solution? “We’re playing for five hours,” drummer Chad Smith tells Billboard.com with a laugh.
Actually, the quartet has things relatively under control after runs through Europe and Japan following the May release of “Stadium Arcadium,” which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200.
“We’ve been doing about six new ones each night, and we switch those up the next night just to keep things fresh for us,” Smith says. “And we do different old ones, too. We have to keep doing different stuff or else we’ll get bored.”
The shows also include one song chosen online by fan club members, though Smith notes that “usually it’s always, like, ‘Under the Bridge’ or one of those that we’re gonna do, anyway. So we try to pick a more obscure one. We’ve been doing stuff off of ‘Mother’s Milk’ or other stuff off of ‘Blood Sugar’ we haven’t been doing lately. So that’s kind of fun.”
The Chili Peppers’ 38-show tour gets underway tomorrow (Aug. 11) in Portland, Ore., and wraps up Nov. 5 in St. Paul, Minn. The group also has four European dates in late November and early December.
(source: Billboard.com)
