328 Performance Hall, Nashville – 24th April 1997

Setlist

Your Pussy’s Glued to a Building on Fire
My Smile Is A Rifle
Moist Vagina (Nirvana)

*Incomplete

Fan Review

I found out about this show about a week before and made plans to be there. I have been a fan of John Frusciante since his inception into the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was no better replacement for Hillel Slovak. I had not seen John play since late 1989 and was really excited to see him again after so long.

While waiting for him to come to the stage I was talking with some people and out of nowhere, it seemed, came his voice. It kind of reminded me of when RHCP were on Saturday Night Live and played “Under The Bridge” and John’s voice was a little “off”. As I walked around the corner into the hall and saw him standing there on stage I was in shock. I had not heard anything about him since he left the band. He looked pale, weak and sickly. Because there were only a few people in attendance I was able to walk right up to the stage. I got a better look and noticed his asterisk (RHCP) tattoo on his wrist was scarred and fading. His teeth looked almost non-existent. There was such sadness surrounding him. I can’t remember every song he played or in what order. It was a very short set, 30 minutes at best. I remember hearing “Your Pussy’s Glued to a Building on Fire”, “My Smile is a Rifle” and the Nirvana cover “Moist Vagina” (which I only found out the name recently). He didn’t address the audience once or say “Thank You” after a song. His playing was a bit rough and his voice sounded like it hurt to sing. I felt so sad for him because I always thought he would turn out to be this fantastic guitar player. When he finished the last song he walked off the stage to very little applause. I think some people were a little annoyed by him.

After that night I made it a personal goal to “will” him back to health. I did as much web research as I could back then and in the Summer of ’98 I was reading a magazine and saw a tiny blurb about him re-joining RHCP. Since then he has recorded a plethora of new albums and has evolved so much as a musician. To me, each album sounds better (even different) than the one before. Now that he has left RHCP again I hope to be able to see more solo shows.

Although this performance in ’97 was certainly not the best, it wasn’t terrible. I feel like I needed to see it, and I feel privileged to be able to say I did.

– Lisa Kelly

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