Bear with me, this may be long...
I have seen them twice before and enjoyed both shows. Going to the show with someone who had never seen them before is kind of like inviting someone to your house so you can show them one of your favorite movies. You’re kind of half watching the show and then half worrying about if the other person is enjoying it.
On a lark back in 2003, I entered a radio contest and won a meet and greet with Anthony Kiedis before their St. Louis show. My friend M babysat that night so I could attend the show and when I came home he asked me how it was meeting Anthony. My response was, “He has beautiful olive skin”. The next day at work M laughingly repeated this quote a number of times. Sometimes it takes someone quoting you back to yourself to realize what an ass you sound like.
High up in the arena Monday night, some fans held up a sign that said, “Show us your socks!” Wow, it was hard to believe that this was the same band that used to perform in tube socks. It was a way more mature set and this time around, all band members had more clothes on than I have ever seen them wear during a performance.
Thinking back about the setlist, all of the songs performed were songs from albums that John Frusciante played on. I wonder if that was intentional.
I have been semi-obsessed with John Frusciante since he cleaned up. He is a fascinating individual who seems to live and breathe music and I think his guitar playing is amazing. I mean the man put out something like seven solo albums in a year. I was reading an article that described his daily routine which consisted mostly of listening to records of whatever band he was fascinated by and learning all of the guitar parts for all of their songs. I think he must be going through a disco or a brothers Gibb phase because at the beginning of this tour, for his little solo song during the set he was doing the Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love”. As K mentioned, this time he did Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing”, which sounded awesome (I have a place in my heart for the Brothers Gibb). In our cluster of fans I think K and I were the only ones singing along to that cover.
Tuesday I went online to look for the setlist and found it posted on a French fan site. Isn’t that funny that a setlist for a show in St. Louis, Missouri would be posted there? Here it is:
High up in the arena Monday night, some fans held up a sign that said, “Show us your socks!” Wow, it was hard to believe that this was the same band that used to perform in tube socks. It was a way more mature set and this time around, all band members had more clothes on than I have ever seen them wear during a performance.
Thinking back about the setlist, all of the songs performed were songs from albums that John Frusciante played on. I wonder if that was intentional.
I have been semi-obsessed with John Frusciante since he cleaned up. He is a fascinating individual who seems to live and breathe music and I think his guitar playing is amazing. I mean the man put out something like seven solo albums in a year. I was reading an article that described his daily routine which consisted mostly of listening to records of whatever band he was fascinated by and learning all of the guitar parts for all of their songs. I think he must be going through a disco or a brothers Gibb phase because at the beginning of this tour, for his little solo song during the set he was doing the Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love”. As K mentioned, this time he did Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing”, which sounded awesome (I have a place in my heart for the Brothers Gibb). In our cluster of fans I think K and I were the only ones singing along to that cover.
Tuesday I went online to look for the setlist and found it posted on a French fan site. Isn’t that funny that a setlist for a show in St. Louis, Missouri would be posted there? Here it is:
Intro Jam
Can't Stop
Dani California
Otherside
Charlie
Fortune Faded
ReadyMade
ReadyMade
Get On Top
Nobody Weird Like Me
Don’t Forget Me
Shadow Dancing (John Solo)
Snow (Hey Oh)
....
....
C'mon Girl
Californication
London Calling Intro / Right On Time
Hey
By The Way
Encore:
I Could Have Lied
Give It Away
Final Jam
The encore was puzzling. “Give it Away” was the highlight, but “I Could Have Lied”? Come on, that is not an encore kind of a song. It’s more of a we just played five fast songs in a row and we’re gonna throw this in to give everyone a moment to breathe kind of a song. To end with an instrumental jam as Anthony walked off the stage makes one wonder if there are problems in the band or if he was not feeling well.
Especially after reading Kiedis’ autobiography, when I listen to their music, I sometimes think how awesome of a band they would be without him. We got a taste of that from the instrumental jams performed in between songs as well as at the beginning and end of the show. Because of this “what if” thought of mine, I enjoyed the jamming where usually that kind of thing totally gets on my nerves.
Songs I would have loved to have heard that they didn’t play were:
Wet Sand
Around the World
Parallel Universe
Breaking the Girl (my brother S hates this song)
Dosed
Minor Thing
The Chili Peppers never talk much in between songs and Monday was no exception. Towards the end of the show, Flea thanked the fans for their support over the years and said that we had their “love and gratitude”. Is this a farewell tour? It kind of felt that way.
--J
The encore was puzzling. “Give it Away” was the highlight, but “I Could Have Lied”? Come on, that is not an encore kind of a song. It’s more of a we just played five fast songs in a row and we’re gonna throw this in to give everyone a moment to breathe kind of a song. To end with an instrumental jam as Anthony walked off the stage makes one wonder if there are problems in the band or if he was not feeling well.
Especially after reading Kiedis’ autobiography, when I listen to their music, I sometimes think how awesome of a band they would be without him. We got a taste of that from the instrumental jams performed in between songs as well as at the beginning and end of the show. Because of this “what if” thought of mine, I enjoyed the jamming where usually that kind of thing totally gets on my nerves.
Songs I would have loved to have heard that they didn’t play were:
Wet Sand
Around the World
Parallel Universe
Breaking the Girl (my brother S hates this song)
Dosed
Minor Thing
The Chili Peppers never talk much in between songs and Monday was no exception. Towards the end of the show, Flea thanked the fans for their support over the years and said that we had their “love and gratitude”. Is this a farewell tour? It kind of felt that way.
--J
Yo,
ReplyDeleteThey'll never play dosed live. It's too intricately produced to play live, and would definitely take something away from the song.
Same with Breaking the girl, IMO.
Actually, if you search youtube for Breaking the Girl, they have played this song live, and there's a clip of them performing it in New York in 2003.
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