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On Sept. 25 I traveled up to Phoenix with my nephew Dakota to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers play at the Jobing.Com Arena. The tour is for their I'm With You album which was released on Aug. 29, 2011, it is their 10th studio album.
I have excited for this concert for about a year. One reason is that they are my favorite band, another is I haven't seen them in concert since about '99 with their Californication tour. One more reason I was stoked for this concert was because it was supposed to take place originally March 2.
The date had to be changed because lead singer Anthony Kiedis had to have surgery on his foot. So I was forced to wait seven months for the concert.
Now the drive to the concert wasn't too bad as we didn't any traffic until we got around the 101 Loop N. exit off of the I-10. Then it took us about an hour, give or take, to reach the arena from that point.
We arrived at the arena at about 6:30 p.m. and the gates for the venue didn't open up till 7 p.m. so we wandered the area (mostly to find a bathroom) as it was a non-stop drive from Tucson to the concert destination.
Once the gates opened up everybody flooded in through metal detectors and then it was on to the merch tables set-up throughout the lobby areas.
My nephew and got to be second right behind a group of three, so I was thinking this shouldn't take long at all. However, I was proven wrong as it took them about 10-15 minutes to decide what they wanted and I was unable to squeeze over without being an asshole. So we waited.
It took only a couple of minutes after that to get my shirt as I'm limited to whatever they 2X in, otherwise they get a bit tight around the thorax. Anyways, after that delay we headed into grab our seats.
The seating area is vacant as we walk in, except for the row we are in, which was section 223 row J seats 10 and 11. everybody in our row decided to get to their seats early so our full row sat and waited half an hour for the show to start.
Right at 8 p.m. the house lights went down and the opening band came out. It was "Band of Skulls" a three piece band from Southampton, England.
The band is skilled with its instruments and has some catchy riffs, but other than that I was not overly impressed. It may not have been their fault, but I was unable to make out any sort of vocals from either singer and to me they had no stage presence.
They just stood on the stage and played their instruments, no movement around the stage, well except for in between songs the guitarist would switch-out guitars and I mean between every song.
After coming home and listening to some of their tracks on the computer, I was able to enjoy it a bit more. They have a rock, blues and grungy sound. At times the music has a Black Keys element, like in their song "Light of the Morning."
I swear the opening riff on "Fires" was almost taken out of the Pearl Jam song "Daughter."
During one song I did feel like I recognized something in the lyrics and I was correct. As I sat there thinking these guys aren't too bad, all of a sudden I hear "Taco Bell."
My head turned quickly in disbelief to the reference and I just figured the fat guy in me wanted to hear food, so that's what I heard. When listening to their song "I Know What I Am," my guess was proven correct.
Anyways they played for about 45 minutes then thanked the crowd and RHCP, then they were off stage.
The lights came back up and the crew started setting up for RHCP. The lights didn't go back down till 9:20 p.m. and that's when the real show began.
The band came out started the show right away with "Monarchy of Roses" off of the I'm With You (2011) album.
Now overall the show was good, I do have my problems with it, but as a whole it was entertaining and enjoyed every minute of it.
That said my problems were as follows:
They only played for an hour and 50 minutes, granted that's pretty long for one band and they are getting on in years, but I was hoping for more.
They ended their encore session with "Give it Away," which is one of my least favorite songs by them because it seems to be nothing more than a commercial song and has no real substance, but that's just me.
No offense to Josh Klinghoffer but it was not the same without John Frusciante at the guitar helm. Klinghoffer is a great guitarist and it was fine when the band played songs off of the I'm With You album. However, when they played any other song it just did not seem right to me. Also he just sat in a chair most of the show, unless Kiedis or Michael "Flea" Balzary persuaded him to move around.
I've grown up just knowing Frusciante as the guitarist (with a very short stint from Dave Navarro) and I did feel disappointed that he decided to leave the band before this album came out.
Anyways, there were some nice surprises though, they played "Charlie" off of the Stadium Arcadium (2006) album, which I immediately informed my brother via text, as his dog's name is Charlie.
They also played "Wet Sand" off of the same album and that is one of my favorites from that particular album.
They also played their cover of "Higher Ground" which was on their album titled Mother's Milk (1989), the song was written and originally performed by Stevie Wonder.
There were other great songs played but none that were as much of a surprise to me as those three. Between songs was entertaining as Flea would engage the audience in random conversation or him, Klinghoffer and Chad Smith would have jam sessions.
The encore started out with Smith hanging and swinging around from the circular light rig that was just above his drum set before the band hammered out its final songs.
I'll add the video for my favorite RHCP song here, they did not play this time around but I did get to see it live back in '99 so I'm okay with it. Enjoy the video.
All in all it was a great concert and I would love to see them again if I can.
Don't forget to keep up on my brother's "Let's Play" channel on YouTube and maybe one of these days he will actually write a video game review for this blog.
Finally I may be adding a new contributor to this blog as my friend Chris Wallace wants to do reviews for war games and miniature games. Maybe some others as well, so you may see a post from time to time from him, if he ever gets back to me.
Well have a great week and I'll probably post again after I get back from Vegas baby, maybe with a story or two to tell, who knows.
Thanks and play well,
MYLO
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