By Anton
When I woke up that day I didn't expect to see the RHCP at night since
I didn't have a ticket. But things turned fast and I got one eventually. I hurried up to be on time for the Peppers show, they opened the hall on 6:00 pm. It was 8:50 pm when I arrived, I was not able to be there earlier. It seemed nothing happened yet. I was glad I got a ticket for this sold out show, my seat was in block 38, row 1. Recognizing I was having a good position to watch the show, I asked the man on my left if the opening act already played. He told me it was a fucked up band, they didn't introduce themselves so he had no idea how to call them (as I found out later: the name of the band was Killing Joke, they played from 8:05 pm to 8:40 pm). I haven't seen them at all, so I don't know how their sound might be. I've had a very good few, I saw the other guys doing the soundcheck for the
instruments. It took a while till the show began to start. The last song that came out of the boxes was Bob Marley's "Redemptin Song", then the light turned off. The audience was screaming very loud and I was very excited. The first Peppers who entered the stage were John and Flea (in underpants), Chad
was the third guy on stage. They started jamming the intro till Anthony entered on stage. The first words Flea told the audience were "Anthony Kiedis... Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Anthony Kiedis...".
The first songs they played were the same like they used to play on the BTW tour. On Fugazi's "Latest Disgrace", John sang a few lines and after "Parallel Universe" he covered "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. After "The Zephyr Song" the guys jammed and Anthony told a kind of story, mentioning
the word "Deutschmen (=Germans)". It was hard to understand what he was saying since the sound of the instruments was much louder than his voice. "Throw Away Your Television" ended with a great jam and after "Otherside" they played "Havana Affair". The audience most likely did not know this song
as well as the next cover "Tiny Dancer" by John. I did not expect John will ever sing that song again (it was a nice surprise), it was really great to see him singing that often, I've had the impression he had a very strong voice that night (especially on "Tiny Dancer"). This song was also something
new for the audience. I already knew about all this covers, jams and intros but the rest of the audience did not, it was nice to see them listening to something of the Peppers they hadn't heard before. Before they started playing "Purple Stain" they had problems in coordinating the next song, one of the guys probably did not know what to play next, but then the first guitar tune rang out. "Purple Stain", one of my favorites that night. "Can't Stop" and "Californication" were played with extended intro jams. After "Californication" they played a great jam, I thought this could be an intro for "Skinny Sweaty Man" but it ended up as a great jam. Flea apologized for postponing the Stuttgart show, which was cancelled in February. "Give It Away" ended with a very long electric effect conclusion by
John, it was really great. Then the show was "over" and 3' later they came up on stage once again to play the encore. At 11:18 pm they left the stage.
All in all it was a great show, they played damn good. Anthony's voice was a bit quiet on a few moments but it was a great show anyway. I enjoyed it very much, although I just got a ticket for a seat and all the other people were happy too. I'm looking forward to the show in Berlin on August 19th, there they'll be playing at an open air location =) |
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