RHCP Brixton Academy

March 1992? Unknown magazine source.

brixton-academy-rhcp

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS LONDON BRIXTON ACADEMY

SEXY AS a sack full of LA surfers, the Peppers flaunt their toast-rack-taut rib cages —all sinewy tattooed muscles and flowing West Coast tresses —to an excited and airless Academy. Overcome, no doubt, by the sight of such raw animal machismo, sweat-soaked young bodies were dropping at the back like coconuts on hot sand long before vocalist and self-styled sex god,  Anthony Kiedis, turned his pouting, f—me-if- you-dare persona on to the writhing, outstretched hands of a crowd simmering somewhere around 120° C

Hopping and hand-standing all over the stage, the Peppers are the epitome of generic crossover funk rock. Unlike the recent crop of insipid dance bands who simper sycophantically at the boots of Stay, Parliament and Motown, the Chili Peppers are irreverent and sexy. They stampede like a herd of rampant bull elephants all over your record collection, throwing every and any influence from Hendrix to Charlie Parker to Public Enemy to George Clinton into their melting pot, in a frenzied attempt to create a blazing barrage of funk rhythms, permeated by rock, jazz, and rap ideology.

Having spent the past two years being hip in the Hollywood Hills, living and working together on their recent album ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’, the Peppers’ live set is tighter and twice as stretched as before. Bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante shoot riffs at each other with the speed and power of machine guns, building to climaxes in songs like ‘If You Have To Ask’ and ‘Suck My Kiss’ and underplaying the menacing imagery of Kiedis’ lyrics in ‘The Righteous And The Wicked’.

OK, so the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been baking in the heat of their own sexual energy for nearly ten years now, but they’re still as spicy as ever. And while other jazz/fun/rock bands dress themselves up in fussy frills and retro-flares in a vain attempt to visually dazzle whilst aurally dulling you, the Peppers’ eclectic, energetic and undressed approach makes you wonder why other new funk hopes bother getting up in the  morning.

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