Skinny Sweaty Men
So the details of awesomeness were a little delayed.
Last Tuesday we saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the ACC. I payed many pretty pennies for floor seats, but it was well worth it. Shauna and I took good notes.
Though they've mellowed their sound in recent years (perhaps because they're in their 40s) the Chili Peppers remain my idea of a band that goes bonkers on every song. Back in the 80s they were a wierd act in a wierd decade; a band with revolving doors on drums and guitar but a consistent overdose of funk, punk, wackiness, colourful clothing or lack of it, bizarre lyrics bizarrely vocalized, phallic socks and, unfortunately, drugs (heroin claimed the life of original guitarist Hillel Slovak). If you're only familiar with the post-millennial Chili Peppers, go pick up any of their 80s albums---self-titled, Freaky Styley, Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and Mother's Milk have all been recently re-released and are fairly cheap---and you'll see for yourself. They could easily pass for two different bands. In the early 90s they lost a bit of the freakiness of their music but replaced it with more polished funk and a lot of womanizing swank on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. In between tales of feeling up female cops, there were a few more serious moments on this album, like "Under the Bridge" and "I Could Have Lied". Then mid-decade they went through a strange period of hazy sexuality on One Hot Minute. Apparently they don't get along with their then-guitarist Dave Navarro and so they never play songs from this album live, and I think a lot of fans ignore it as a kind of limbo between old and new Chili Peppers. Granted, some parts of it are pretty wussy ("Pea" and "Tearjerker"), and others are discordant ("Deep Kick") but there are excellent mellow funk tunes on the album that shouldn't be cast aside ("Walkabout", "Transcending"). After this they shifted into the Chili Peppers of today with Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium. These albums still have funky elements, but they're polished and you don't quite get the sense that the band are flailing their limbs and ripping their clothes off while playing the songs---and this was definitely the sense in the 80s. And the funkier tunes now take a backseat to songs that are more straightforward rock, though they still maintain their own sound that sets them apart. This was especially the case on By the Way, a very introspective album. Some of the fans who know their 80s material don't like the three most recent albums because they're more radio friendly. I'm okay with the change---they went from a good sound to a good sound. In a way, Stadium Arcadium is more balanced, as over two discs it has a good combination of rock-it-out, funk, mellow, acoustic, even slightly jazzy ("Hey") songs with very few weak points. Definitely the best album of 2006.
We arrived at the ACC just after La Mars Volta started their opening set. They should re-title themselves La Mars Revolta. There are seven or eight guys in the band, and beyond the bassist and drummer, who create a small inkling of rhythm, I'm convinced the purpose of the rest is to make noise. Apparently they need people in the next province to hear their important noise, as they cranked the volume to an inhumane level. We left our seats and returned to the lobby after about 1.5 songs, and hung out there until LMV was done, feeling like old fuddy-duddies with fingers in our ears. Well, we were older than most of the crowd, many of whom wouldn't have been alive before Mother's Milk.
RHCP kicked off around 8:30. The crowd instantly took their feet when John, Chad and Flea played an instrumental jam for several minutes and then wound their way around to the opening chords of "Can't Stop" as Anthony came on stage. At this point the wall of lights behind the stage not only lit up in red, so did the giant fan of long horizontal bars on the ceiling, which I thought was some sort of acoustic rig to keep the sound out of the rafters. Four screens came on in front of the behind stage lights. From our floor seats it was like we were face-to-face with a multi-storey Exhibition ride about to swallow us whole. Mucho fun. Here's how the show proceeded...
"Dani California" - if you've turned on a radio in the past five months, you've heard this song. A good tune with a sing-along chorus, but a little over-played at the moment. The four screens started moving around behind the stage. It was a warm night and Anthony said something like "Is it August up here? Time to start removing layers." This turned out not to have any dirty connotations---I know you're all hoping this is when they stripped down to the old socks on their dicks routine, but it didn't happen.
"Scar Tissue" - also not a bad song, and spearheaded their new sound when it came out in 1999. Also a bit over-played, but the crowd loved it.
"Charlie" - this is a really good song off Stadium Arcadium. Very funky but also has great harmony by John. The addition of John's voice is something else that sets new and old Chili Peppers apart. He hits some beautiful notes and adds range to the vocals. Anthony has a good and very distinct voice but it doesn't go too high or low. During this song we noticed that even the guy going up and down the aisle selling pizza was dancing.
I should mention the clothes, because they were interesting. Anthony wore long shorts and an undershirt, with strange tight-fitting gloves. John wore a crushed velvet leisure suit, which combined with his long hair made him look straight out of the 70s. Flea was in a tightfitting body suit of pinkish paisley design, which was so tight it could have been mistaken for full body tattoos. Chad wore white cover-alls and matching backwards cap, making him look like a housepainter. He's also a dead ringer for Will Ferrell.
"Fortune Faded" - neat snowy background behind the stage.
"Readymade" - a heavy funk tune from Stadium Arcadium. Good solos by both John and Flea.
"Throw Away Your Television" - this song was sensory overload, which was probably the point. The four screens flashed tv clips at a dizzying rate...the only image I recall is Michael Jackson's face.
"Humpty Bump" - not one of my favourite songs off the newest album, but the best part was the giant cartoon monkey that nodded along on the stage background.
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - John played and sang this cover solo, and did a really nice job of it. He has several solo CDs out and one of these days I must give them a try. Everybody sang along.
"Snow (Hey Oh)" - Great song with great lyrics.
"Me and My Friends" - With the preceding songs all coming from more recent material, this oldie came out of nowhere. It really hits you over the head, too, as though Anthony and His Friends are mostly dedicated to going around smashing things.
"Stadium Arcadium" - This is a moody song that I like a lot for its harmonies. Without them I think it might fall flat, kind of like "Californication". "Califonication" got a lot of air play, but I've never liked it much; it's rhythm is boring and it just gets wrapped up in being moody without adding any flourish. For "Stadium Arcadium" the background showed the globe and various planets spinning around in space.
"Right on Time" - Catchy song from Californication. Flea ran out to the edge of the stage and played his bass like a madman.
"Don't Forget Me" - A graphicly-lyriced song from By the Way. I didn't know that the rhythm for this song is strummed on the bass.
"Tell Me Baby" - The next song at risk of over-play. Still, I like it, it's very happy funky bright.
"Soul to Squeeze" - I think this is off the Beavis and Butthead soundtrack, of all places. After this song Flea launched into a tirade of 'thank yous' to various people and things. He talked so fast I couldn't make out who/what he was thankful for, but he got a big cheer.
"By the Way" - They did this song with lots of intensity...then again, they did every song with lots of intensity. The lights were blinding here and everyone sang along. After it finished they left the stage and the crowd noise was deafening for several minutes. A spotlight flew around the place, highlighting different crowd sections and eliciting more noise.
After a few minutes Chad came back alone and played a jazzy-to-heavy drum solo. Then the other three came back and played...
"I Could Have Lied" - from Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
They then started a song I didn't recognize, complete with lyrics I've never heard. There was a guy on the stage whom I didn't recognize, and he sang along...this turned out to be just an intro to...
"Give It Away" - before bringing this song to its crescendo they did part of it in a reggae style.
Next they went into a long instrumental song that seemed to be part "Get Up and Jump" and part "Show Me Your Soul" and part a bunch of other things. Anthony jumped around and tried to throw his limbs out of joint. Then he jumped onto a tall stack of amps without using his hands. This nameless song went on for several minutes, and included a part where Anthony told John to "make those girls dance with your guitar". John played something groovy and three girls beside the stage flashed their bohooms...no, they didn't, this wasn't a Poison concert or anything. But they did dance and looked to be having a fine time.
When this song ended John and Anthony quickly left the stage...Flea walked off on his hands (the guy is a freak of nature, honestly) and Chad thanked the crowd...the lights came on and Sly and the Family Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay" played...and that was it. It was only 10:20pm, and they had played since 8:30pm. It was the most intense concert I've been to, and I was tired from dancing and singing along the whole time---we never sat down---but I was still ready for more. Pearl Jam played for a full three hours, as did the Stones. Perhaps because the Chili Peppers were well into their tour and it was the second show in as many nights they were a little tired, but I still felt like a second encore would have been nice.
So, at present I don't have tickets for any other concerts. Despite their brevity, the Chili Peppers will be a tough act to follow because of their overdose of energy they put into their music and how much I've been listening to them this year. But I think I might have become addicted to the spectacle of big concerts. Oh the flashing lights, and the crowd sing-alongs, and the lead singer's banter, and the epic solos, and all the big show set pieces...I can't get enough...
So the details of awesomeness were a little delayed.
Last Tuesday we saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the ACC. I payed many pretty pennies for floor seats, but it was well worth it. Shauna and I took good notes.
Though they've mellowed their sound in recent years (perhaps because they're in their 40s) the Chili Peppers remain my idea of a band that goes bonkers on every song. Back in the 80s they were a wierd act in a wierd decade; a band with revolving doors on drums and guitar but a consistent overdose of funk, punk, wackiness, colourful clothing or lack of it, bizarre lyrics bizarrely vocalized, phallic socks and, unfortunately, drugs (heroin claimed the life of original guitarist Hillel Slovak). If you're only familiar with the post-millennial Chili Peppers, go pick up any of their 80s albums---self-titled, Freaky Styley, Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and Mother's Milk have all been recently re-released and are fairly cheap---and you'll see for yourself. They could easily pass for two different bands. In the early 90s they lost a bit of the freakiness of their music but replaced it with more polished funk and a lot of womanizing swank on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. In between tales of feeling up female cops, there were a few more serious moments on this album, like "Under the Bridge" and "I Could Have Lied". Then mid-decade they went through a strange period of hazy sexuality on One Hot Minute. Apparently they don't get along with their then-guitarist Dave Navarro and so they never play songs from this album live, and I think a lot of fans ignore it as a kind of limbo between old and new Chili Peppers. Granted, some parts of it are pretty wussy ("Pea" and "Tearjerker"), and others are discordant ("Deep Kick") but there are excellent mellow funk tunes on the album that shouldn't be cast aside ("Walkabout", "Transcending"). After this they shifted into the Chili Peppers of today with Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium. These albums still have funky elements, but they're polished and you don't quite get the sense that the band are flailing their limbs and ripping their clothes off while playing the songs---and this was definitely the sense in the 80s. And the funkier tunes now take a backseat to songs that are more straightforward rock, though they still maintain their own sound that sets them apart. This was especially the case on By the Way, a very introspective album. Some of the fans who know their 80s material don't like the three most recent albums because they're more radio friendly. I'm okay with the change---they went from a good sound to a good sound. In a way, Stadium Arcadium is more balanced, as over two discs it has a good combination of rock-it-out, funk, mellow, acoustic, even slightly jazzy ("Hey") songs with very few weak points. Definitely the best album of 2006.
We arrived at the ACC just after La Mars Volta started their opening set. They should re-title themselves La Mars Revolta. There are seven or eight guys in the band, and beyond the bassist and drummer, who create a small inkling of rhythm, I'm convinced the purpose of the rest is to make noise. Apparently they need people in the next province to hear their important noise, as they cranked the volume to an inhumane level. We left our seats and returned to the lobby after about 1.5 songs, and hung out there until LMV was done, feeling like old fuddy-duddies with fingers in our ears. Well, we were older than most of the crowd, many of whom wouldn't have been alive before Mother's Milk.
RHCP kicked off around 8:30. The crowd instantly took their feet when John, Chad and Flea played an instrumental jam for several minutes and then wound their way around to the opening chords of "Can't Stop" as Anthony came on stage. At this point the wall of lights behind the stage not only lit up in red, so did the giant fan of long horizontal bars on the ceiling, which I thought was some sort of acoustic rig to keep the sound out of the rafters. Four screens came on in front of the behind stage lights. From our floor seats it was like we were face-to-face with a multi-storey Exhibition ride about to swallow us whole. Mucho fun. Here's how the show proceeded...
"Dani California" - if you've turned on a radio in the past five months, you've heard this song. A good tune with a sing-along chorus, but a little over-played at the moment. The four screens started moving around behind the stage. It was a warm night and Anthony said something like "Is it August up here? Time to start removing layers." This turned out not to have any dirty connotations---I know you're all hoping this is when they stripped down to the old socks on their dicks routine, but it didn't happen.
"Scar Tissue" - also not a bad song, and spearheaded their new sound when it came out in 1999. Also a bit over-played, but the crowd loved it.
"Charlie" - this is a really good song off Stadium Arcadium. Very funky but also has great harmony by John. The addition of John's voice is something else that sets new and old Chili Peppers apart. He hits some beautiful notes and adds range to the vocals. Anthony has a good and very distinct voice but it doesn't go too high or low. During this song we noticed that even the guy going up and down the aisle selling pizza was dancing.
I should mention the clothes, because they were interesting. Anthony wore long shorts and an undershirt, with strange tight-fitting gloves. John wore a crushed velvet leisure suit, which combined with his long hair made him look straight out of the 70s. Flea was in a tightfitting body suit of pinkish paisley design, which was so tight it could have been mistaken for full body tattoos. Chad wore white cover-alls and matching backwards cap, making him look like a housepainter. He's also a dead ringer for Will Ferrell.
"Fortune Faded" - neat snowy background behind the stage.
"Readymade" - a heavy funk tune from Stadium Arcadium. Good solos by both John and Flea.
"Throw Away Your Television" - this song was sensory overload, which was probably the point. The four screens flashed tv clips at a dizzying rate...the only image I recall is Michael Jackson's face.
"Humpty Bump" - not one of my favourite songs off the newest album, but the best part was the giant cartoon monkey that nodded along on the stage background.
"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - John played and sang this cover solo, and did a really nice job of it. He has several solo CDs out and one of these days I must give them a try. Everybody sang along.
"Snow (Hey Oh)" - Great song with great lyrics.
"Me and My Friends" - With the preceding songs all coming from more recent material, this oldie came out of nowhere. It really hits you over the head, too, as though Anthony and His Friends are mostly dedicated to going around smashing things.
"Stadium Arcadium" - This is a moody song that I like a lot for its harmonies. Without them I think it might fall flat, kind of like "Californication". "Califonication" got a lot of air play, but I've never liked it much; it's rhythm is boring and it just gets wrapped up in being moody without adding any flourish. For "Stadium Arcadium" the background showed the globe and various planets spinning around in space.
"Right on Time" - Catchy song from Californication. Flea ran out to the edge of the stage and played his bass like a madman.
"Don't Forget Me" - A graphicly-lyriced song from By the Way. I didn't know that the rhythm for this song is strummed on the bass.
"Tell Me Baby" - The next song at risk of over-play. Still, I like it, it's very happy funky bright.
"Soul to Squeeze" - I think this is off the Beavis and Butthead soundtrack, of all places. After this song Flea launched into a tirade of 'thank yous' to various people and things. He talked so fast I couldn't make out who/what he was thankful for, but he got a big cheer.
"By the Way" - They did this song with lots of intensity...then again, they did every song with lots of intensity. The lights were blinding here and everyone sang along. After it finished they left the stage and the crowd noise was deafening for several minutes. A spotlight flew around the place, highlighting different crowd sections and eliciting more noise.
After a few minutes Chad came back alone and played a jazzy-to-heavy drum solo. Then the other three came back and played...
"I Could Have Lied" - from Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
They then started a song I didn't recognize, complete with lyrics I've never heard. There was a guy on the stage whom I didn't recognize, and he sang along...this turned out to be just an intro to...
"Give It Away" - before bringing this song to its crescendo they did part of it in a reggae style.
Next they went into a long instrumental song that seemed to be part "Get Up and Jump" and part "Show Me Your Soul" and part a bunch of other things. Anthony jumped around and tried to throw his limbs out of joint. Then he jumped onto a tall stack of amps without using his hands. This nameless song went on for several minutes, and included a part where Anthony told John to "make those girls dance with your guitar". John played something groovy and three girls beside the stage flashed their bohooms...no, they didn't, this wasn't a Poison concert or anything. But they did dance and looked to be having a fine time.
When this song ended John and Anthony quickly left the stage...Flea walked off on his hands (the guy is a freak of nature, honestly) and Chad thanked the crowd...the lights came on and Sly and the Family Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay" played...and that was it. It was only 10:20pm, and they had played since 8:30pm. It was the most intense concert I've been to, and I was tired from dancing and singing along the whole time---we never sat down---but I was still ready for more. Pearl Jam played for a full three hours, as did the Stones. Perhaps because the Chili Peppers were well into their tour and it was the second show in as many nights they were a little tired, but I still felt like a second encore would have been nice.
So, at present I don't have tickets for any other concerts. Despite their brevity, the Chili Peppers will be a tough act to follow because of their overdose of energy they put into their music and how much I've been listening to them this year. But I think I might have become addicted to the spectacle of big concerts. Oh the flashing lights, and the crowd sing-alongs, and the lead singer's banter, and the epic solos, and all the big show set pieces...I can't get enough...
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