So...I Saw This Band Last Night...You May Have Heard Of Them

 So, I saw RHCP on Monday. First let me say I had planned on seeing them multiple times on this tour now that I’m older and it’s easier to travel and afford such things. Anyway, due to them skipping out on New York State in general this will likely be the only time I see them on the I’m With You tour. It’s my 7^th time seeing them since 2000 and I’ve been able to track down all the setlists (with the exception of the first show I was at) I may indulge in some setlist statistics later if I have some free time and the first time since 2007.

This show was different for many reasons this time around. Firstly, It’s safe to say that I’m not as hardcore into the band as I had been the times I saw them on the BTW tour or a lesser extent the SA tour. I hadn’t listened to the band in months leading up to the show so I wasn’t in the zone, so to speak. Q, my friend and I spent all day wandering around Boston drinking and enjoying the scenery. (Bonus points for going to the Bukowski bar).

Due to excessive partying and general idiocy we walked into the Arena just as Monarchy Of Roses was starting. Which then took us awhile to find our seats, so we virtually missed the entire song. Although, I do think that’s a great opener and much better than hearing Can’t Stop for the 123123123312 time to open the show.

SET LIST:

·  Monarchy of Roses

·  Around the World

·  Scar Tissue

·  Dani California

·  Charlie

·  Look Around

·  Breaking The Girl

·  The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie

·  Can't Stop

·  Don't Forget Me

·  Under the Bridge

·  Me & My Friends

·  Californication

·  Suck My Kiss

·  By the Way

·   

   Encore:

·  Chad & Mauro & Josh Jam

·  Sir Psycho Sexy

·  They're Red Hot

(Robert Johnson cover)

·  Soul to Squeeze

·  Give It Away

·  Final Jam

Here are just some general thoughts:

-I find it odd that for touring behind a new album they only played 3 songs from Im With You, and each were the singles. Monarchy, Maggie and Look Around. All of which sounded great, I actually wanted to hear more from the album.

-Venue stopped selling Beer at 9:30, I would have liked to enjoy at least one beer during the show.

-The show was good (I am looking forward to buying the MP3s and giving it a better listen) and enjoyable but it’s hard to shake the fact that something was off, or just missing because of JF’s larger than life guitar presence.

-No surprise that the highlights for me were the deeper cuts I didn’t think I’d ever hear, chiefly being Sir Psycho and They’re Red Hot. Breaking The Girl and Suck My Kiss was a nice addition as well.

-Don’t Forget Me was my take a piss song. Which is very telling in Ben’s eyes.

-The Chad, Mauro and Josh jam was cool. It started with Josh playing the drums.

-They’re were seriously hot chicks grinding on each other a few rows ahead of us during the concert. Q and I had issues focusing on the concert.

-When did “Can’t Stop” become the uber White Boy Anthem?

-I think Kiedis was in a leg brace or something. We were kind of far, but his one leg look weird and stiff.

-After the show was over Chadwick Gaylord Smith came out and said “Don’t tell Flea, but go Celtics!”

-My friend has been a huge fan since BTW and this was his first time seeing them. After hearing live albums and seeing live DVDs with JF he was a little let down.I think speaks volumes.


-The outro music for the arena after RHCP finished was the Beastie Boys song, "Girls"

JT Loves Johnny

Came across this today and remembered how fascinated I always was to watch John talk and perform. He was just so fucking weird, I loved it.
Josh doesn't seem to have that quality. Odd.
Oh yea...
This video was from 2006 in Abbey Road Studios. Worth watching just for the solo at the end of Snow.

New Beachwood Sparks?

I almost completely forgot that this band existed.

http://www.pitchfork.com/news/46113-beachwood-sparks-return-with-new-album/

Move it Football Head!

Got a laugh out of this, they do a bunch of these fake trailers for random nickelodeon shows...

Someone finally put this on Youtube

This is how I imagine Joelle after reading Jt's description

"I'm With Jew" - Woody Allen

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of attending my first RHCP show in 6 years. Considering they had new material and Josh I was cautiously optimistic, but the last time I saw them they actually disappointed me (they were essentially just going through the motions by that point, a precursor of things to come). I went early, got to enjoy some tailgaiting and the rest is detailed below in setlist/comment form.

As you can see from the picture at the bottom of the post, I was sitting in the 2nd tier. I actually really enjoyed the view. I could see a ton of what was going on backstage and got a very unique perspective. Sound was still pretty good.

4/4/12 - Raleigh, NC

Walk in as Santigold is playing her last song. Walk right back out to get a beer.

Walk in again as they are clearing the stage. Much better.

Peppers go on at 9. No opening jam. Straight into song 1. Crowd goes nuts. Sold out show. Very good energy to begin.

1) Monarchy of Roses - perfect intro song. They have a habit of finding one song they are going to play as the intro for every show on a tour. This song works perfect. The distorted build into that first pick up section is great. Lights go nuts, crowd follows. Real amped at this point.

2) Dani California - forget how much I love this song. A little nervous about seeing the john parts as done by josh. No fears needed. Turns out he'll be just fine.

Fan shot video of the outro solo from much better seats than mine.

3) Charlie - Josh continues to prove he has solid chops with the 3 solos here. He's very different than john, but he is flexing a lot more muscle here than at first.

4)Otherside - first "older" song and the lack of percussion section appears. the extra musicians apparently bring a lot to the table because when they were absent I noticed. Crowd was most excited about this one but it didn't carry throughout the tune. Solid version.

5) Look Around - my favorite off the new album (not a surprise I know) and joelle too. she went to pee and was super bummed she missed most of it. thats why you wait to hear the song before you pee. really fun live. they pull it off and the energy is there.

6) Throw Away Your Television - I have come to really enjoy this song and it's R2D2 solo. Josh pulls it off amicably. seems really weird to not have the "don't you ever leave" tag at the end.

7) Hard to Concentrate - Completely caught me off guard here. Not sure it's the best song to hear live, but all the same it's cool to say I've heard them do it. Joelle was was quite hammered at this point decided this should be out wedding song, so uh, yea move over Flea.

8) Rain Dance Maggie - Surprised how much this song has grown on me. Very fun live, bouncy and crowd is loving it.

9) Happiness Loves Company - A song I like on the album, though don't love. This was the first song that was a real lull (even compared to HtC). Didn't translate that well live. They are going to need more practice on this one before it works.

10) Me & My Friends - Always fun to hear. anthony and flea talked about the "quiet love ballad" they were about to play for 30 secs to a minute before bursting into this one.

11) Ethiopia - Excellent use of the extra percussion. This was a lot more fun live than I would have expected the first time I heard it. Ended up enjoying this one a lot.

12) Under the Bridge- time to pee. they should retire this song, for so many reasons.

13) Higher Ground - this is more like it if you're going into the back catalogue. fun and very high energy. I remember the cleveland halloween show q and I went to had them playing this for the first time in forever.

14) Californication - good song. josh really lamed up the first few notes of the solo before sorta redeeming himself. this was the first time all night where he really seemed out of place. they might want to think about giving him more practice on this one or getting it out of the set.

15) By the Way - high energy as always and very good version. no major jam to end it, which of course is another thing I've come to expect from listening to way too many live versions.

16) encore break - it should be noted that there are a lot of jams (pre and post song) that I am leaving out here because I can't remember where they were. the good news is though that they were all awesome. they are locked in right now and it shows.

17) Chad/Mauro/Josh jam- killer. the double percussion really adds a whole new element to their sound and this jam made it all the better. kick ass.

18) Can't Stop - very good still but you can totally tell when the percussion section leaves. it's weird that I found myself longing for them on certain songs where they were absent.

19) Meet me at the Corner - another one I could have done without. another where I would say I like it on the album but I just don't need to hear it live in order to appreciate it any more. I needed something else here that was high energy, possibly a BSSM track.

20) Give it Away - still good after all these times hearing it. not sure how this song manages to survive for me without getting remarkably stale a la under the bridge. got the crowd real riled up for the final jam.

21) final jam - good, long and intense. as I mentioned before these guys seem locked in a great jam mode and it showed over and over.

the show clocked in at 18 songs, 2 long jams and 5 or so shorter ones totaling 1:45 which is pretty solid considering their age and how intense they were onstage. josh was flailing around like crazy and flea is back to being insane as usual.

Songs I Wish I Heard

- Sir Psycho Sexy

- Suck my Kiss

- Around the World

- Blood Sugar Sex Magik

- Wet Sand

- Factory of Faith

- Right on Time

Songs they played the next 2 nights or night before

- Hey (first time since 2007)

- I could have lied (first time since 2007)

- Right on Time

- Suck my kiss

- factory of faith

- Power of equality

- Annie wants a baby (ahh!)

- Everybody Knows this is Nowhere (oh snaps!)

Overall, I'd give it a 8/10. Really enjoyed it and think it 100% converted joelle. she was so bummed it didn't go on longer, which I take as a good sign. I'll be anxious to hear what the rest of you who are going think of your shows/sets.

Go Purple Parrots!

Found this site that streams nostalgic nickelodeon shows....

http://www.nickreboot.com/

Its set up to show a random episode from 90's/2000's.
Got some goodness like Pete&Pete, Rocko's Modern, Doug, Hey Dude ect.
Gleason I know you said you saw some of these shows recently so you may already be aware.
If anyone wants to get together and wager on a round of legends of the hidden temple I'm game.

the second hardest button to button

Is is just me or does it sound way to close to your most famous rift to not notice...



Still amped up for Blunderbuss tho.

Also heres an awesome live level version i ran into the other day...

Vidyaz

I posted this video on facebook earlier this week. I've been mildly obsessed with it. This whole group's thing seems to be based on capturing awesome performances on video, a la OK Go (whose new video is also pretty cool). It's already pretty well known, but if anyone hasn't seen it it's worth checking out. It's so good, I like the original song by Gotye, now. He has a Sting/Phil Collins/Peter Gabriel thing going on...