Red Hot Chili Peppers have just played a swaggering Give It Away. They’ve walked off to do whatever it is they do before the encore. A few roadies move some equipment around. The cameras that have been covering the action on stage turn to the audience.
The two big screens show a sea of waving arms; close-ups of sweaty, smiling, sunburnt faces; self-conscious giggles; people who still have enough energy after 90 minutes of jumping and screaming to jump and scream some more.
Then, a makeshift sign, nothing more than a printout on two pieces of A4. “Welcome back Frusciante. We missed you.” Clearly it’s not an isolated thought: the 60,000 people in London Stadium already cheering for more music get even louder.
Truth is, John Frusciante isn’t the most energetic, captivating, or athletic performer tonight. That would be Flea. In an orange tank top, his cropped hair spotted in technicolour, he could be making a rockstar exercise video. There are the pelvic thrusts into his bass as he hops forward, a handstand walk, something that looks like a cross between star jumps and headbanging, and the kind of knees-up-to-the-chest hops that Eddie Vedder retired decades ago.
Truth is, Frusciante isn’t the most effusive performer tonight either. That would be Flea, again. An almost perpetual grin during songs — and declarations like “my heart soars with joy” between them — highlights just how much fun he’s having in London on this glorious summer evening. Singer Anthony Kiedis, shirt off within the first three songs, seems almost as enthused: running across the festival-issue stage, air drumming, spinning around with arms flailing when not rapping Around The World or crooning The Zephyr Song. And Chad Smith, originally introduced to the band as someone who “eats drums for breakfast”, isn’t far behind — with his arms and legs seemingly in perpetual motion, drums are most definitely on the menu tonight.
Truth is, Frusciante’s contributions are more heard than seen. With no flash, no pretence, the band’s prodigal guitarist just gets on with it. Whether he’s playing that instantly recognisable snaky riff of Snow (Hey Oh); laying down scorching solos on Tell Me Baby and Wet Sand that put the versions on Stadium Arcadium to shame; tapping his way Eddie Van Halen style through the verses of Don’t Forget Me; or stomping on pedals to change his tone in the middle of an instrumental break, the effort seems minimal.
The results are anything but — as powerful, moving, and undeniably beautiful as his backing vocals on just about every song in the set, but especially Dani California and those from this year’s glittering Unlimited Love. Black Summer, which is suitably shimmery for an evening like this; the smooth funk jangle that is She’s A Lover; the slow-fast-slow These Are The Ways, featuring the band’s most undeniable, driving chorus in years; and big bass groover Here Ever After all reveal how important Frusciante’s voice (and not just his playing) is to the Red Hot Chili Peppers sound.
Back on tour with the band for the first time since the Reading and Leeds festivals in 2007, his return has clearly had an impact on the rest of the band. Tellingly, they play nothing from the albums they recorded without him and make room for several short, but complex and inspired, instrumental jams between songs. Like an actor who might alternate between a mass-appeal Hollywood blockbuster and a dark, difficult indie film, it’s almost as if the Chili Peppers are reinvigorating themselves between the big hits.
And there are plenty of those in this undeniably crowd-pleasing set. A fittingly sunny Californication, in particular, has the crowd — up on their feet from the first song — looking as enthusiastic as Flea. And By The Way, which closes the show after a gorgeously tender Soul To Squeeze, swings through London Stadium like a wrecking ball. Still as potent as it was 20 years ago, its intense verses, soaring chorus, and even that “wuah wuah wuah” siren bit, break out periodically as the masses make the slow march back to Stratford while the sun sets.
The show we’ve just experienced is a world away from the band’s first gigs in this city in the early 1980s. During the set, Flea and Kiedis reminisce about those trips — climbing out of windows, wanting to track down Johnny Rotten, supporting Pinetop Perkins at Dingwalls “to seven people” — and what clearly hasn’t changed is their ability to show a (sizably larger) crowd a very very good time.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
London Stadium, London
26th June 2022
Photo: Paul Grace
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 