Salt Lake City show: review and pics
Here’s a very positive review of the RHCP show in SLC, from the Salt Lake Tribune, written by Dan Nailen. And there are some photos as well, here. Only one of them is of John, though.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are proof positive that chemistry counts in rock and roll.
Some bands might be little more than interchangeable parts backing one primary songwriter, but the most musically creative and commercially successful eras of the Chili Peppers’ 23-year-career have come with the current lineup of singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. This foursome first got together in the late ’80s and took over the world on the strength of breakthrough album “BloodSugarSexMagik” before reforming in ’99 after Frusciante had left seven years earlier, thoroughly freaked out by fame.
He got over it, and the band is better for it. The Chili Peppers currently find themselves flush in the creativity department, as evidenced by the sprawling new “Stadium Arcadium” album – a 28-song set that provided the band its first No. 1 record – and by the relentlessly energetic show the band put on at the Delta Center on Wednesday.
The sonic connection between the quartet’s members on record is more pronounced in concert. It’s almost a physical thing: the band constantly gathered at Smith’s drum riser to make eye contact among themselves, and they rarely stayed apart for long on stage. Kiedis’s spastic dancing took him the farthest, but he always came back quickly, drawn in by the intense racket conjured by Flea, Smith and Frusciante.
Much like the “Stadium Arcadium” album, the Chili Peppers’ current live show is dominated by the genius of Frusciante’s guitar work, and that’s all the more impressive considering Flea is in the same band. From the opening one-two punch of “Can’t Stop” and “Dani California,” the flannel-clad Frusciante could be counted on to deliver scorching guitar parts on every song, adding some stunning falsetto harmony vocals to Kiedis’s and even singing lead on an abbreviated cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.”
New songs settled in nicely with older tracks, and the set was dominated by music made since Frusciante returned to the band. Flea’s expressive bass thumps dominated.
“Scar Tissue” and the funky new song “Charlie.” “Otherside” was a massive singalong as soon as Kiedis delivered the first word, and throughout Smith was both powerful and restrained on his kit – not an easy combination. The title track from “BloodSugarSexMagik” was a definite and unexpected highlight, as was the uber-poppy new track “Snow (Hey Oh!).”
The band’s energy was matched with a creative light show that included four constantly moving video screens and lights that covered both the back of the stage and the venue’s ceiling. The blasts of reds and greens and flashing rainbows made the show as optically captivating as it was musically.
The push toward show’s end included the punk-funk oldie “Nobody Weird Like Me,” a short burst of The Clash’s “London Calling” that led into “Right On Time” and an epic “Californication.” After encores including “BloodSugar” monster hit “Give It Away,” many in the crowd no doubt left the Delta Center as spent as the band.
