At one point in the Red Hot Chili Peppers set — somewhere in between the manic thrash of “Me & My Friends” and smooth laid back cruiser “Sick Love” — Anthony Kiedis tried to make a joke. It was something about how the band’s opener, Babymetal, was actually raised nearby in St. Petersburg. It was delivered in all sincerity by the frontman, with genuine gratitude and admiration of the Japanese pop-metal outfit. Flea even chimed in to add a bit about how the ladies of Babymetal were actually crab farmers at one point. Minimal laughter ensued, and while it didn’t take the air out of the room, it was a total dad joke for the ages. But dads can still rock, and the band proved it during an 18-song set at Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Thursday night.
Playlist: Listen to every song the Red Hot Chili Peppers played at Amalie Arena in Tampa
Kiedis, Flea and drummer Chad Smith look majestic for being in their mid-50s. Smith — decked out in a blue, sleeveless jumpsuit is a machine who enjoys playing drums more than many of the younger drummers we’ve seen play this year. Flea, forever hunched over his bass and dressed in magical hobo pants fit for an acid-tripping legion of The Swiss Guard, is a natural wonder with boundless energy, strength and sharpness of mind (he walked on his hands to start the encore for chrissake). Kiedis, mustached and chiseled out of a black and white photo book featuring glistening Southern California surfer boys, is the personification of perpetual motion and an object of envy for his also aging legion of fans who probably kill time at a desk before heading home to binge on Westworld or The Walking Dead.
Certain songs from the band’s 33-year-old canon (especially “Dani California,” “Californication,” and Blood Sugar Sex Magik highlight “Suck My Kiss”) still bend at the Chili Peppers’ will, and fans were happy to add even more punch to them by singing along. “Soul To Squeeze,” with its classic riff and unduplicable melody seems to have aged better than anyone could have imagined. But it has still aged, and so have the Chili Peppers. The band’s last two LPs (2011’s I’m With You and last year’s The Getaway) don’t come close matching the fire on their next closest sibling, 2006’s Stadium Arcadium.
What’s more is that guitarist Josh Klinghoffer — who more than holds his own in the throes of the band’s wholly unique and extremely difficult soul, funk and rock influenced songbook — will forever be compared to his close friend and longest-tenured Chili Pepper guitarist John Frusciante. That isn’t meant to take anything away from the 37-year-old Rock Hall of Famer, it’s just that the Chili Peppers of ‘89 and ‘91 introduced an entirely new sound to a generation of music fans already entrenched in a rapidly changing industry that have them MTV and CDs. The guys were originals, and Klinghoffer — as skilled as he is — is a young gun running next to still iconic men who managed to meld their distinctive individual personalities into one of the most special bands of the 90s and early 2000s.
The Chili Peppers of yore made the world bend at their will, and while a visually enthralling live setup literally allowed the band to shape the innards of a sold out arena at the drop of a hat, you get the feeling that the world at large is slowly starting to walk away from the band. Examples of the brave, inventive and give-a-fuck-less-about-convention rock and roll that Kiedis & co. pioneered so many years ago are available at the touch of a smartphone screen (although nothing will duplicate the live experience, and Flea noted that after the encore).
There’s a stanza in “Don’t Forget Me” where Kiedis sings, “All the memories of Everything you've ever smelled/Not alone/I'll be there/Tell me when you want to go.”
A packed house with more than 15,000 fans is not going to forget what it saw on Thursday night. A legion of fans will go wherever the Chili Peppers go (and let’s face it, we’d follow Flea anywhere). But the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ style of rock is starting to feel more classic than progressive, and that’s okay because, let’s face it — dads can still rock, and that's more inspiring than a lot of what's out these days anyway.
Setlist
Around the World
Dani California
The Zephyr Song
Dark Necessities
Hard To Concentrate
Me and My Friends
Sick Love
Don’t Forget Me
Go Robot
Californication
What Is Soul? (Funkadelic)
Detroit
Suck My Kiss
Soul to Squeeze
By the Way
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I’ll Be Back (The Beatles)
Goodbye Angels
Give It Away
