Red Hot Chili Peppers Sold Out NorCal
Red Hot Chili Peppers put on a smoke show in Northern California!
Pictures and Words: Jim Brown
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Sacramento – June 2024
Music Fan Magazine was invited to attend the Red Hot Chili Peppers Nor Cal opener at Toyota Ampitheatre in Wheatland and for this long time Peppers fan it was a show that exceeded expectations and proved RHCP can still throw it down.
I won’t mention the opener except to say that I just didn’t get it. Lots of grunts and hollers, backed up with bass, more like a high school kegger than a proper opener for one of the most dynamic and storied bands in the last three decades. All of us were waiting in anticipation of the first set RHCP was going to play in Northern California since a quick stop at Levi’s Stadium last year or the year before...can't remember actually.
The set started with Flea, Chad and John warming up with a kick ass freestyle jam session where the audience could get comfortable and find their space in the SOLD OUT crowd...on a school night none the less, nice job Chili’s. When 19,000 people decide its ok to drag ass into the office the next morning just so they can see your show, that's better than any MTV award you ever won, that right there is a first place trophy in securing a dedicated following of multi-generational followers that are willing to gamble their jobs...just to see you play. I may be overplaying this but considering the completely effed up parking and traffic situation getting to Wheatland, it's important that the Red Hot Chili Peppers know what it took for these folks to get there tonight. It was more than the $300 mid-section tickets. It was a lot more, trust this writer when I say relationships were tested and 401k accounts were molested.
Back to the show. Flea...honestly. I have trouble finding time to get 30 minutes of cardio on the ol’ stepper machine and this guy comes out with no shirt...baggy shorts and muscles ripped like a dad that just did a 5-10 stretch at Folsom. AND...he can thump the business out of that Fender bass. He hit that so hard that we got pictures of Flea’s face that would duplicate his accent to Mars if he was strapped to a JPL Artemis Rocket booster...his whole energy was freaky style terrific, and his expression was quintessential Flea. It was we had hoped for...but unsure if father time had caught up to him yet. Answer...he did not.
Anthony was next to emerge, and I’ll be god damn if he didn’t bring the same stink Flea brought to the stage...and he did it with some kind of medical boot thingy on his leg. Kiedis started hustling around the stage with a noticeable casual and sexy indifference, he wanted to be in the beat, but I do not think he cared which town he was in. Still, the vocals were on target and tightly grouped.
Lighting into “Dani California” on the second song, the crowd went collectively bonkers. Flea was smashing the life and soul out of that poor bass and Chad was slamming the dog crap out of the tom tom’s and snare...it was magically delicious and took the crowd back in time for 4:42 minutes...I know because I almost stopped taking pictures when I lost thought in reciting that song from 15 years ago...good times.
You can look elsewhere on the WWW for what the songs mean, or how Red Hot Chili Peppers have been at the forefront of speaking out about social injustice and financial inequity over the past few albums. That was not the predominant thought tonight...what the sold-out crowd and this photographer was thinking was simply...how do they keep this shit up at this level for this long? I can’t get my TPS reports approved at the office, but Flea just jumped 6 ½ feet in the air while playing a bass guitar?
Red Hot Chili Peppers are tight. They sound perfect. Chad is on point. Anthony...hobbled like a drunk sailor with the boot thingy...is perfectly pitched and exactly like my 1985 cassette tape of “Freaky Styley” purchased at the old Sam Goody music store. (for the millennials that was an actual store that you had to walk into to buy things...and a cassette tape required a secondary purchase of a #2 Dixon Ticonderoga pencil...look up “essential relationships” on the google machine and you will get the idea.)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers pushed forward into “Scar Tissue” ...sad song actually...then “Suck My Kiss” and the eventual “Californication” later in the almost 2 hours set. Each presentation was spot on. I could not hear a crack, a fracture, or the slightest stress in Anthonies range or how good Chad and Flea were performing in their roles as GODS of the funk/rock/punk music scene.
We can’t do a review without discussing Anthonies mustache...holy Amazon pigmy people that was a lip bush worthy of a Jack London short story. But it was oddly good to see and made sense because only a man that can grow that kind of face curtain can play the role of the Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer for the past 30+ years. God Bless America and God Bless Anthony Kiedis.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have history, lots of it. Good and bad. Knowing this before you see them live adds a flavor to the show because in the back of your mind while Flea is doing his thing, and Anthony is singing so bright that new families are being created in the lawn area...you have to appreciate that at several points in the Chilis storied history they could have ended it all. Lots of reasons why. None that we can ever get our head around because we are not rock stars and do not relate to the situations and pressures these simple humans were subjected to.
Frequently, they collected themselves at Chad’s drum kit. All of them looking to Chad, like it must have been back at the Santa Monica beach party that I missed in 1982 when they were forming their sound. Chad hitting the snare, the cymbal and the cowbell...no just kidding there was no cowbell. It was really nice to see that the Chili Peppers could almost care less if they were at a sold-out show or in someone's back yard, the show would have been the same regardless.
At the end of the night everyone felt satisfied. The Red Hot Chili Peppers delivered a strong set. The hits were good as they ever were. Flea...well nothing has changed except the hairline. And...as the moon rose over Wheatland Ampitheater the exiting crowd was reminded to “Dream of Californication” plastered on the outgoing marquee board.
Thanks guys...see you next time around.
Music Fan Meters:
Smoke Meter: Nothing really significant...whispers of ganga but nothing that would lead you home in a snowstorm.
Fight Meter: High...very high...but only with the CHP and the poor bastards that volunteered to direct traffic and park cars. This place completely sucks to get to, get into, and get out of. At the risk of never being invited back again...The Wheatland Ampitheatre needs a new traffic control plan. I know a guy. Call me.
Sing Along Meter: Off the chart. Ridiculous. Who didn’t sing along with every hit the Red Hot Chili Peppers brought to the crowd tonight?....people on parole that's who. Everyone else killed it.