Red Hot Chili Peppers, Acer Arena, April 16
Reviewed by George Palathingal
April 18, 2007
THE dream, for anyone for whom making music is a vocation, is to get to the point where they can spend the rest of their lives making the music they like, whenever they like - whether they've sold a gazillion albums or shift just enough with each release to keep their record company happy.
In 1999, after 16 years of exhilarating highs and devastating lows, Los Angeles's Red Hot Chili Peppers reached this point via the mega-selling method thanks to their Californication album.
Maybe they didn't know they had done so then - hence their continued, successful pursuit of excellence on 2002's By the Way - but they seem to know now.
With last year's Stadium Arcadium, the Chili Peppers proved they were so huge they could release an overlong, self-indulgent album and still be rewarded with multiple Grammys and obscene sales figures. Unthinkably, for a band that was once almost untouchable onstage, this complacency has spilled into their live performance.
This gig follows the pattern of their wonderful 2002 shows - heavy on the latest album, a healthy selection from their post-'99 creative-rebirth period, a handful of golden oldies - only this time "the latest album" isn't By the Way. Yes, Stadium Arcadium and this show have their moments, but not enough.
The band's chemistry remains undeniably impressive. They are proficient musicians, particularly Flea, who still bounces and darts around, as elastic as his bass lines, and the extraordinary guitarist John Frusciante. But the set's increased number of dirge-like ballads shows up Anthony Kiedis's limited vocal range. (Not that this, or anything, appears to bother him. The singer barely speaks to the audience and often seems lost in his own world.)
Everything is made more frustrating by the few highs: searing funk-rock opener Can't Stop; the chaotic punk of Me and My Friends; a sprightly Hump De Bump; and the euphoric rush of By the Way. The only other memorable moments come from cover versions - Frusciante singing a couple of verses of disco classic I Feel Love, his gorgeous solo rendition of Cat Stevens's How Can I Tell You and the whole band finishing powerfully with their ever-rousing take on Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground.
Otherwise, all you need to know is that the Red Hot Chili Peppers evidently don't care about you any more. So maybe you shouldn't bother with them, either.
