There comes a time in every band’s life when they have to step up to the plate and play the ultimate gig. Last night it fell to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they were playing Portman Road the home of the greatest team in the world, Ipswich Town!
A group of us went along to the gig in some of the best weather of the year so far. The setup couldn;t have been better, a short walk from my house to the ground, a few beers and some “interesting” support acts. First one were !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk), who were, being honest not great. The most entertainment came from the audience at the front trying to hit the band members with empty plastic cups and bottles. A few good shots maybe explains the very short set, only 20 minutes. Based on that I don’t think anyone will be rushing out to buy the album.
Next up were the Dirty Pretty Things, made up mainly of ex-Libertines members with a grudge against Pete Doherty. They’re a new band even though the members are all famous from previous ventures. A couple of decent songs, give them a year or two to build up a decent play list and they’ll be pretty good but in the end everyone was there to see the Chilis, not the support acts.
From the moment they came on stage to the moment they left, 2 hours later, they put in such a huge amount of energy that I’m surprised they can keep this up for a full tour. Flea was jumping round in a skintight bodysuit like a madman, the other guys were giving equally as much to the performance. There are some bands which just do live performance as well if not better than studio performance, these guys fall into that category. Even the obligatory “Hello Ipswich” bit was done well with humour. The set itself was a really good mixture of the new album (it is the Stadium Arcadium tour after all) and the old classics. The inclusion of Dani California early on got everyone going, but it was really the older songs which got the best reaction: Californication, Under the Bridge and Give it Away. It was all good, I can even forgive the self indulgant guitar noodling. Just superb!
If you get a chance to see them on this tour I would totally recommend it. Although if the rest of the dates are anything like last night you’ll do well to find a ticket, it was a complete sell out.
I’ve stuck a few photos up on Flickr and some trademark shaky video up on YouTube:
Splendid. Whilst I’ve been into the Chilis forever (1988? Something like that), up unti lnow I’ve not seen them live. But that changes on Saturday. Woo hoo!