Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mt Smart Stadium: January 21, 2023

Red Hot Chili Peppers and Post Malone teamed up to give Auckland concert-goers something to remember on this sweet, summer night. Here’s how it went down as seen by our Rev. Orange Peel.

 Red Hot Chili Peppers are greeted by an eruption of rapturous cheer from a sold-out stadium as they take the stage. We are in for a big night as the mighty rhythm machine cranks up. Akin to the massive burners as a NASA spaceship launches.

Chad Smith fires off polyrhythms at speed behind a huge drum kit. He really does seem to be the holy progeny of John Bonham and Buddy Rich.

Michael Flea Balzary matches the thunder on a bass which seems to be strung with pylon cables. A heavy and righteous bottom. Later we are told he is playing a vintage 1957 Fender Precision bass.

Right there I could listen to these two all night.

But with Around the World, this starship launches. Anthony Kiedis the singer, looking like a freaky, tattooed Sonny Bono with big moustache and bowl-cut hair. John Frusciante on variegated styles of electric guitar.

Kiedis and Flea are the originators from forty years ago. That’s close to double the age for many of the audience tonight. On stage they duel for the front man role. These guys have gone through traumas and bad to nasty behaviour that probably out-strips all other musical artists.

That they are still performing at the top of their game is surely a testament to the ultimate power of rock’n’roll.

A big drum solo kicks into Dani California, and the guitarist gets to shred like Hendrix.

Universally Speaking seems to turn into an activist song, as I swear I hear Kiedis change the lyrics to I saw your country burn/ I saw your kind.

The engine room play brief intros prior to most of the songs. One which stands out is a type of popcorn funk which sounds close to harmolodic free jazz .

This precedes Aquatic Mouth Dance which is tribal Afro-Funk but with a retro Sixties vision in the style of the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane. Psychedelic space effects.

Post Malone

Post Malone is Austin Richard Post, from Syracuse, New York originally, and currently based in Los Angeles.

He is an interesting young rap artist as he combines equally, soul and rhythm ’n’ blues and folk into his repertoire. He sings more than he monologues. He has a powerful voice and when he fires up he can sustain melody without ever resorting to bellowing.

For a solo performer he can occupy a massive black stage and fill it with his presence. That’s quite a feat, and the large audience are reacting in the manner of a headline act.

He constantly thanks the crowd, and he appears genuinely humble and grateful doing it.

I Fall Apart is a ballad. Definitely a pop song delivered with emotion. She left me with a broken heart/ She cut too deep.

Then he sits down to play an acoustic guitar on Stay. What begins with a folk tone ends up with blue-eyed soul.

Later he smashes this guitar and feeds it to the audience, but that feels to me a little unnecessary in these current times. There are flames on stage as special effects, but at least he didn’t set fire to it.

Take What You Want is one highlight. I feel you crumble in my arms. The recorded version features Ozzy Osbourne.

Rockstar follows with some fast fraught rap.

Sunflower combines rap and pop and resonates through the audience as he extends it out.

Finishes with White Iverson, one of his earliest. It’s a monologue in a Van Morrison mystic style, which he transforms into soulful pop to close.

A very interesting genre-bending artist. The crowd give him a huge embrace.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The guitarist gets to play on one of the interludes. He does some James Brown band style chanks guitar which ends up as dub reggae.

hrow Away Your Television follows. It has a Stone Roses psychedelic sound which they build into a stunner.

Tippa My Tongue is able to combine rap and the rhythmic drive of classic Sly and the Family Stone.

The Drummer is just an absolutely masterful blend of punk funk and rock.

These are stand-out songs from their newest album Return of the Dream Canteen (2022). Check this album out and you may find it stands up with their best.

Californication and the band take off with a classic stadium rocker. The bass is superlative, the singer is soaring. More Hendrix- style guitar wailing closes it out.

Black Summer is a surprise. Starts as country rock and gets psychedelic. The band site pretty much all the great Sixties rock bands as influences, so channelling the Grateful Dead is appropriate.

By the Way is great tribal Talking Heads funk and the drumming reaches an atonal barrage. Great for your soul.

They close the evening with Give it Away. Amphetamine-laced speed natter vocals and one-of-a-kind rock’n’roll.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are as good as they ever have been. Heart-warming that they are still at the top of their game.

Rev Orange Peel     

Red Hot Chili Peppers perform next in Dunedin. Click here for tickets   

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Leonie Moreland:

Red Hot Chili Peppers:

Post Malone: