Chili Weekend in Brum!

Warning: Sarcastic sense of humour alert! Don’t like my tongue- in-cheek style, read no further. Apparently some people think I’m actually serious when I write… Hahaha! Artistic licence anyone?!

 

RHCP Birmingham on Saturday 10th December, 2016.

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Tonight, I had seats as my daughter was too young for the arena and I was taking my monsters to their first EVAH concert. It to be RHCP as they’ve been surrounded by the band since birth and I had promised to take them on the next arena tour. Finally the tickets arrived with 48 hours to go- talk about cutting it fine! (Amazon had sent their tickets out in plenty of time but these were through the official site’s pre-sale and so many of us had everything crossed for them to arrive in time). We got there, got drenched in the torrential rain getting into the arena from the car park although thankfully the shuttle bus meant we got less wet than we initially feared, I spent a small fortune on merch (for my daughter as always!) and we made it to the seats with popcorn and drinks- I’ve never sat waiting for a rock band eating popcorn before but there is apparently a first time for everything!

A bit earlier than I expected and I think most other people did too as the arena was half-empty (I don’t think on purpose as people were still coming in when RHCP hit the stage although maybe it was! ), the lights went down, the Baby Metal sign illuminated and it was show time!

Baby Metal

Cue the start of a cringe worthy intro voiceover welcoming us the metal world of babies in a way that hasn’t been heard of since 1983…

If you don’t know this band, imagine Slipknot wrapped in torn bed sheets accompanied by three hyperactive toddler cheerleaders who sing after inhaling 1000 helium balloons EACH. Oh, and throw in a Simon Cowell style producer who threw this ensemble together to make money, sorry I mean for delectation of Japanese fetishists, and all this somehow ended up on a stage in the UK!

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Let’s go back six months or so when they were announced as the support act. My son walked past as I was reading the announcement and he started to laugh when he saw the name Baby Metal. I’d never heard of them so I asked why. I was told they were a joke band that became the butt of internet jokes six months previously and that the kids at school were shouting “Baby Metal” and parodying (my term; not his!) the band. “Trust you to be past it, Mum! Why are you asking about them now?” I explained they’d just been announced as the support act for the Chilis… Cue son literally rolling around the floor in laughter before telling me to watch a video. I said I would later but he insisted on then so he could watch my reaction. He selected a video and I started to watch. TBH, I couldn’t see the issue as I liked the music but son was watching me intently and instructing me to wait much to my puzzlement… And then I saw! The helium induced ‘singing’ started. Cue son rolling on floor again at my reaction… At this point in walked my daughter who saw the video playing and started to laugh saying Mum, “Why are you watching this now? So past it. Such a joke…”

Back to the concert. I can only say Baby Metal are worse in concert than I anticipated. Concert level speaker distortion and those vocals…. And as I imagine the proportion of the audience who speak Japanese was in the lower end of single figures, most of us couldn’t even attempt to decipher the lyrics making them sound even more like random noise. And irritating isn’t in it for the silly girlies. Two 12 year olds dressed to look six and

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an adult doing the same pretending to be rock stars while throwing devil horn signs and  wearing frilly skirts with their hair in bunchies. Not sure whether to feel sorry for the audience having this inflicted on them or the poor girls who looked so desperately miserable with their forced smiles.

Still, they performed some great tricks. Whatever the girls are on to race and jump around like they do, I seriously need some especially when they weren’t even the tiny bit breathless at the end of their set given how perfect the vocals sounded. It was almost as impressive as the bassist that played with one hand at one point (the other was under the torn bed sheet… Umm! ) and my absolute favourite bit was the drummer who stood up at one point, stepped back from the drum kit, held the drumsticks in the air and the drums still

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played… Umm again! No idea why everyone was screaming that they were miming! And as my 12 year old commented, the adult girl child had two mics and used one to speak to the audience (how many times can you say Birmingham in 30 minutes? I think we all knew where we were!) and another to sing into. Shame they didn’t just mime and turn off the sound.

By the time we got to the final track, ‘Gimme Chocolate’, when they compensated for the language issue by repeatedly saying the only word English words they knew other than ‘Birmingham’ which were somewhat unsurprisingly ‘gimme’ and ‘chocolate’, I seriously had to fight the urge to run down to Bournville and buy the largest bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk I could and ram it in their mouths to oblige and also give the rest of us some peace!

Considering the concert was held on almost Led Zeppelin land, Baby Metal went down faster than an actual lead version of the same. There were a line of Baby Metal devotees on the front row, a few scattered through the audience and some people clapping politely while most people were just mouthing WTF? Then they went off. Never has silence been so blessed!

Red Hot Chili Peppers!

 

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Again a little earlier than expected and to an arena that wasn’t full (people were coming in for about the first ten minutes- apparently there were issues at the doors) the strains of a trumpet were heard…

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Set List:
Around The World
Snow ((Hey Oh))
Otherside
Dark Necessities
Hey
Right On Time
She’s Only 18
Go Robot
Sick Love
Californication
Detroit
Suck My Kiss
Soul To Squeeze
By The Way
Encore:
Goodbye Angels
Give It Away

Around The World! I’d seen it cropping up on set lists as the opening song a few times recently and was really pleased to experience it as it’s such a brilliant song. I was also delighted to hear ‘Hey’. Love that song so much and again I’d seen it on set lists recently but never thought I’d ever hear it live! So happy! And my daughter was so happy to hear ‘Sick Love’ as she’s liked that song since first hearing it although that was pretty much a given at the moment.

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The new lights are amazing too! Videos really don’t show them to their full effect. Really happy to see them for real; they are even more stunning than anticipated.
There were issues with ‘Soul To Squeeze’… Collective audience holding of breath and mentally sending AK the lyrics as the whole of the first verse wasn’t right. There were issues with ‘Give It Away’ too and no end jam but the concert was still amazing even though Josh was ill and according to Chad at the Drum Clinic on Tuesday, there were human and technology issues. I was more than happy and had two very happy kids! Just watching their reactions during the show added another dimension. It was time for Give It Away all too soon but we have a whole load of new family memories <3

Notes:
I didn’t realise until I got home and looked at my photos but Flea now has a ‘stache.

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AK made Josh and Flea smile when he said he was going to play an instrument as he felt like doing so. He was saying “right now” and the other two were clearly wondering what was going on!

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Suddenly Anthony called out and everyone thought there was another problem as it was just after Soul To Squeeze but he just called the other musicians being called onto stage although it looked like a sudden change.

Flea sang a little song naming places in the area e.g. Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

Sick Love live is accompanied by images from the video split across three screens.

AK started to sing ‘Goodbye Angels’ from a seated position.

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Chad was totally hamming it up when he gave out drumsticks at the end.

 

RHCP Birmingham on Sunday 11th December, 2016.

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Set List:

Can’t Stop
Dani California
Scar Tissue
Dark Necessities
Nobody Weird Like Me
Hard To Concentrate
Go Robot
Parallel Universe
Sick Love
Tell Me Baby
The Getaway
Did I Let You Know
Under The Bridge
Encore:
Dreams Of A Samurai
Give It Away

Back again! But this time without kids and with a standing ticket. Got there a little later than planned due to the motorway being stationary for a while and holding me up but I was still able to get a spot just back from the barrier.

Another great set list! I really wanted to hear ‘Dream of a Samurai’ live so my wish came true! Everyone and everything seemed totally on form with lyrics intact and no visible issues. Josh was totally on fire. Being under the new lights added another dimension to

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them – they are just amazing- and there was a short jam at the end of GIA tonight.

During the encore, Josh dived off stage and came back wearing a red beanie loosely perched on his head. At the end of the concert, he tossed several picks at the crowd and then took off the beanie and started to gesture intently at someone in the crowd – was clear he wanted someone specific to get it (I knew a friend of mine was roughly in that spot and that she’d got a sigh for Josh so I really hoped it was her. We met up at the end of the concert and it was 🙂 )

Chad made a lengthy and impassioned speech right at the very end when the rest of the band had left the stage talking about Birmingham and Black Country drummers and bands/musician such as Glenn Tipton, Ozzy & Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc. and what an honour it was to play in Birmingham for that reason.

And I have another set list!

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Such an amazing weekend and then there was the Chad Smith’s drum clinic to follow on the Tuesday.
Photo Galleries

RHCP Saturday 10th December 2016

RHCP Sunday 11th December 2016

RHCP on Tour 2016: Stockholm

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Date: 10th September, 2016

Location: Tele2 Arena; Stockholm Sweden.

Setlist:  

01 Can’t Stop
02 Dani California
03 Otherside
04 Dark Necessities
05 She’s Only 18
06 Search And Destroy
07 Blood Sugar Sex Magik
08 Go Robot
09 Californication
10 The Getaway
11 Look Around
12 Under The Bridge
13 Sick Love
14 By The Way
~~~~~~~~~~
15 Goodbye Angels
16 Give It Away

 

Notes: They covered Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop and The Stooges

Many thanks to Henrik Lewandowski for his set list information!

Videos:

Go Robot!

The new Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video to accompany the single ‘Go Robot’ directed by Tota Lee is now out!

You can view it HERE (sorry can’t find an embed code; only a link)

Screen Shots from the Video:

RHCP Tour 2016: Berlin

UPDATED: Full video added

Date: 6th September 2016

Location: Kraftwerk, Berlin, Germany

Set List:

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Photo Credit: Henrik Lewandowski

 

Can’t Stop

Dani California

Dark Necessities

Otherside

Tell Me Baby

The Getaway

Snow ((Hey Oh))

Go Robot

Californication

Look Around

Soul to Squeeze

Sick Love

By The Way

Encore

Cover: Part of Lust For Life (Iggy Pop)

Goodbye Angels

Give It Away

 

Notes: This was a private concert e.g. competition winners were able to attend. It was the first concert in Germany to be filmed in 360 degrees.

For those watching the live stream in Europe- it seemed that US IP addresses were blocked- there were mixed results. Some streams (with the 360 degree camera?) were giving really fuzzy results with lagging sound but other streams (traditional cameras?) were giving excellent quality- which is why my screen shots are from the latter half of the concert as initially I was battling with the poor quality stream until I found out about the other link. A couple of screen shots from the poorer live stream:

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Screen Shots from the Live Stream:

RHCP on Tour 2016: Prague

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Photo credit: Henrik Lewandowski

Message from Chad Smith:

Chad Czech @chadsmithofficial

A video posted by Red Hot Chili Peppers (@chilipeppers) on

Date: 4th September, 2016

Location: O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic

Set List:

prague-rhcp-set-list-september-2016

Photo credit: Henrik Lewandowski

Can’t Stop

Suck My Kiss

Scar Tissue

Dark Necessities

Parallel Universe

Nobody Weird Like Me

Snow ((Hey Oh))

Go Robot

Californication

What is Soul? (Not listed on the set list)

Factory of Faith

Goodbye Angels

Under The Bridge

Sick Love

By The Way

Encore:

Dreams of a Samurai

Give It Away

Notes:

What is Soul? (Funkadelic) was not listed on the set list.

Many thanks once again to Henrik for all of this info!

RHCP TOUR 2016: Budapest

Date: 1st September, 2016

Location: Pap László Budapest Sport Aréna, Budapest, Hungary

Set List:

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Photo: Henrik Lewandowski

Can’t Stop

Dani California

Scar Tissue

Dark Necessities

She’s Only 18

Me and My Friends

Goodbye Angels

Parallel Universe

Go Robot

The Adventures of Raindance Maggie

Under The Bridge

Detroit

Californication

By The Way

Encore:

Dreams of a Samurai

Give It Away

budapest-rhcp-1-september-2016-henrikPhoto: Henrik Lewandowski

Photo credit: Csenge H

Notes:

First night of the tour proper rather than festival dates and a new stage set which looks rather impressive!


 

Many thanks to Henrik once again for the information & to people giving me video links and to Csenge for the photos!

RHCP’s ‘Go Robot’ Video- Snippet Released!

A very brief teaser of the video to accompany the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new single, ‘Go Robot’  from their latest album, The Getaway, has been released. It shows Anthony Kiedis walking along a street with the caption, ‘coming soon’ at the end.

(Warning- not nudity but not much left to the imagination so think about when you view it!).

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GO ROBOT

A video posted by Red Hot Chili Peppers (@chilipeppers) on

RHCP Tour 2016: Reading Festival!

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The Main Stage, Reading Festival

Despite driving there through a very heavy rainstorm, earlier forecasts in the week of rain and some heavy rain drops falling briefly, it remained dry for the whole day and later on (I took this when I first arrived) the sun came out and it was a lot brighter.

Date: Saturday 27th August, 2016

Location: Reading, England.

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Merch

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Ticket/Wristband

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Set List:

rhcp-reading-august-27-2016-set-list-claireMany thanks to Claire for permission to use her photo

Can’t Stop

Dani California

Scar Tissue

Dark Necessities

Adventures of Raindance Maggie

Snow ((Hey Oh))

Go Robot

Otherside

Parallel Universe

The Getaway

Californication

Under The Bridge

By the Way

Encore:

Goodbye Angels

Give It Away

My Notes:

At some point they played a snippet of ‘Brimful of Asha’ by Cornershop

Flea and his daughter Sunny did a handstand together and then Sunny did a flip across the stage before the two shared a loving hug. So Sweet!

 

Rebecca’s Review of Reading!

I was there! I wasn’t originally going to the festival because of having to take my kids which wasn’t a good idea on so many levels but very last minute, thanks to some amazing friends who looked after my children and got a ticket to me as they had sold out by that point, I got to go!!!

Arrived at Reading early afternoon and then begin the 65 minute trek from the car park to the festival site (not that far) and on to the arena entrance (was that far! You had to walk all the way round the venue from the main entrance to virtually the opposite side to get to the actual day ticket entrance and then walk through part of the camp site to get to the arena entrance itself -on the way out you could just leave by the main entrance which took a few mins- and then through the ticket check point, the swap your ticket for a wristband tent, the queue for the arena and to go through security who just glanced at my bag and didn’t seem to do much but there was a long queue all the same… Total faff and the worst organised festival I’ve been to in terms of entrance ( e.g.the Isle of Wight festival sent you a wristband instead of a ticket which saved the faff of swapping things) although everything else was really well done.

Slaves
The first act I got to see was Slaves (Slave?). Sorry not my thing! I’m past puerile angst (and I think the vocalist looked old enough to be past it too!) and it’s been done better and more originally by others and I think I’m getting old but every other word (literally and including one song they played) doesn’t have to be the “f word”. But maybe that’s just me!

Eagles of Death Metal

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The next act was Eagles of Death Metal who were really good. A couple of songs in, the vocalist put on a RHCP t-shirt and a cape and he wore the t-shirt for most of their set until he removed it and threw it into the audience. It was also sweet how he did a shout out to his father and got the crowd to cheer for him. Loved their cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Save A  Prayer’ at the end of their set.

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I missed the next act while buying a t-shirt (obviously RHCP!) and food as the queues were a lot shorter when someone was playing although they sounded good and I regretted not getting stuff earlier on so I could listen to them properly.

Imagine Dragons

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Imagine Dragons were up next and I started moving closer to the stage partly as I wanted to see them and also to try to get a better spot ready for RHCP. Loved ‘Radioactive’ when it came out and bought the album but never got into it as it sounds so different to that first single but they were really good live and ‘heavier’ than the album. Will try re-listening to the album now!

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers
And then the reason why I went… RHCP! The set started with a trumpet solo before going into the jam leading into ‘Can’t Stop’. Amazing set! Obviously, I have songs I prefer to other ones and every song they played was one I really like so it was a brilliant set list as far as I was concerned AND I also got to hear some songs off the new album live for the first time which, of course, was amazing and I was very happy about! 🙂 The audience was great and there was a wonderful atmosphere.
I was close to the very end of the safety barrier for the start of the set but decided to move back  after a while as it was so hot and I couldn’t see Chad at all and wanted to see the whole stage for the new display- although I didn’t manage either of those as I ended up just a bit farther back than from where I started out from but I now had room to move about and treat Reading to my dancing skills ( :P). Many thanks to Stephanie and Anna (hope I got that right!) who decided that dancing with a totally insane RHCP fan to ‘By the Way’ (so glad your fav song got played!), through to the end of the main set and for giving me hugs during ‘Under The Bridge’ because they knew how much that song means to me, was the most normal thing in the world! Was great to meet you girls 😀

Shout outs too to Sage (think he was seven) who was at his first RHCP concert with his mum and who loves the band and also to the group from Guernsey I stood by at the side of the stage at the beginning- hope you enjoyed your first RHCP concert too! There was another couple I was chatting to for ages before I went in search of food (am amazing veggie burrito! Was so good!) and merch who were so friendly.  And to the guy who chatted me walking along the road back into Reading at the end of the concert. And the pics are attached at the bottom as promised for you guys who asked me to take them!!! Thanks everyone <3

 


Red Hot Chili Peppers – We Will Rock You (Flea… by dlstreamlive

Full Show:

Photos:

I tried taking photos as I always do but I didn’t get any good ones- so disappointed and I actually cried when I saw them at home today as I’d tried so hard to get some good shots (final straw on a stressful day; my son ended up being rushed to hospital by my friend looking after him as he had a bad asthma attack. Despite being told he was fine as he’d responded well to treatment and that there was no need, I raced the 100 miles back to be with him as soon as my friend called me first thing this morning. He’s totally fine now but my stress levels are still high!) but it’s so hard to take them from the crowd. Have included the better ones. The first ones at the beginning are pictures taken of the display screens and came out the best of the lot.

 

(Photos as requested:)

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RHCP Tour 2016: Lollapalooza

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Date: Saturday 30th July, 2016

Location: Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois

Set list:

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Source

Can’t Stop

Dani California

Scar Tissue

Dark Necessities

Snow

Look Around

Otherside

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Go Robot

Californication

Parallel Universe or Maggie- Parallel Universe was played

The Getaway

*Josh Klinghoffer: ‘I Would For You’  by Jane’s Addiction* 

Under The Bridge

By The Way

 

Encore:

Goodbye Angels

Give It Away

 

Full Show: