By Carlos Pariente (emmitremmus@yahoo.es)
I remember it was a really cold day (about 0ºC). The concert took place at La Cubierta Bullring in Leganés, Madrid. I went there by bus from Burgos (my city).
When I arrived I could see the RHCP tour bus parked outside, although nobody was in. Despite the cold weather, there was a lot of people around the place (in fact, it was a sold out concert).
I remember entering the Bullring, i think it's a good place for concerts, although the sound often sucks (as it is made of reinforced concrete and it's not too big, it's easy to hear the echoes all over the place).
The opening band was a spanish one called Kabuto Jr., they became famous at that time because of a song that was always on TV in a spanish phone advertisement. The surprise was that they were introduced by Flea & Chad, making a pre-concert jam with Chad on drums and Flea saying unintelligible words. It was cool!
Then, Kabuto Jr. played their set. They really don't have bad songs (some electronica touch on them), but the sound was awful. Fortunately they didnt play too long and soon the Peppers appeared!
They wore the suits they had been using for the Cali European Tour. The lights went off and "Around The World" opened the performance. Then they came with "Give It Away". At that time, everybody was shouting and jumping at the same time. It was amazing! However, the sound was terrible (specially in "Around The World"). But from "Scar Tissue" (one of the highlights) till the end of the show it become better and better and finally it wasnt so bad.
"Otherside" was sung by every single person there, and i have no words to explain the sublime John solo at the end of "I Could Have Lied".
Another highlights of the night were "Californication" and "Under The Bridge".
The encore was also cool. They played "Fire" with the lights on and everybody shouting (not singing). Then, Flea & Chad began to break the instruments cause everybody was asking for more songs and they had to go (it was really funny, with Chad trying to stop Flea breaking his drums, cause he wanted to save one at least!).
And that's it. I think it was a cool concert overall, although i missed more interact between the band and the audience. I mean they didnt say or spoke many words to the crowd, maybe cause they were a bit tired (this concert was the last but one of the European tour). Also, the sound could have been better. But, anyway, it was an unforgettable night for me and it was very special to see John playing in Spain for the very fist time (the only time RHCP visited Spain before was with Dave). |