Then & Now - Red Hot Chili Peppers

What the hell happened to this band? A couple of things: One, they got older. Two, they cared more about being a top 40 band than staying true to who they were and three, they stopped doing drugs. Now, I don’t want to condone hard drug use on this page. It’s a bad road with the only light at the end of the tunnel being a freight train. But for some reason when this band got sober, they gradually started to lose their edge. Which, by the way, usually doesn’t happen to metal and rock acts (case and point: Motley Crue). It starts with 1999’s Californication album. This is the first record that hinted at the ‘selling out’ pop sound that the band would eventually completely adopt. And it worked. The album was a huge success, one of the only bands that played instruments at the time that had VH1 top 20 recognition. The rest was rap and manufactured pop acts like N’Sync and Britney Spears. And for many, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were this softer, psychedelic rock band from the late 90’s.

Many, including myself, were unaware of their previous work that dates all the way back to 1984. In fact, when you mention that little tid bit to a Gen Y or Millennial their heads nearly explode in disbelief. Then their heads often do explode when experiencing an album such as ‘The Uplift Mofo Party Plan’ or ‘Mothers Milk’. It’s a completely different band! There was a time when The Red Hot Chili Peppers actually stood for something. It stood for hardcore funk mixed with a raw, punk attitude shoved right up the keister. And it was awesome, it was hardcore. ‘The Uplift Mofo Party Plan’, ‘Mother’s Milk’, and ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magic’ are three of the baddest, phattest, most ball dropping albums of all time. And ‘One Hot Minute’ (the album with Dave Navarro on guitar) is also quite excellent.

Then the band went to rehab once again for a final time I believe. I don’t really know much about them post ‘Stadium Arcadium’. Anyways, they released ‘Californication’ upon exiting rehab with a new lease on life. And you can hear what they were trying to do. Which was write pop songs for a new generation while mixing in some older feeling songs such as ‘All Around the World’ and ‘Purple Stain’. Very sneaky if you ask me. Because by the time ‘I’m With You’ (horrible album title) came out in 2011 there were no remains of the formerly red hot band.

Now, the band couldn’t release an album like ‘I’m With You’ in 1999 because it would have caused extreme backlash from their old audience. And the chilis would have most likely fallen into obscurity along with the rest of their 80’s peers. So what we end up getting are three really bi polar albums between 1999 and 2006: ‘Calfornication’, ‘By The Way’ and ‘Stadium Archadium’. The singles, with two exceptions, are all the pop sided songs. And they began to rebuild a new audience. One of safe space, softened, flowers and pedals teenagers. A complete 180 from where the band was 25 years ago eventually came into fruition in 2011. I’m sure if they had their druthers they would have released ‘I’m With You’ in 1999. They don’t even play ‘Give it Away’ anymore!! What’s even worse is that the band have let go of almost all of their ‘red hot’ sound but they have held on to their rebellious, alternative image. So what you get is this really cool looking, seemingly bad ass band but when the record is spun it sounds like a bunch of ninny’s trying to be safely outlandish. Flea, for fuck’s sake, you’re 54! PUT ON A DAMN SHIRT!! And those are my feelings on the once red hot now luke warm band. They’re like a pot of coffee that started out fresh and bursting with caffeine and flavor. But over time the pot didn’t get completely consumed so it gets cold and stale with a bitter flavor that can only be destroyed by eating a tube of toothpaste.

So Red Hot. It’s like exploding out out of the stage. The sound is so phat and big. It grooves so grandly and Keidis in it in every second; jumping around and going nuts. It doesn’t get much better.

This is the transition period when the band came back in 1999 after a four year hiatus. Most of the set from this tour is older material, but they were slowly transitioning. One song here is from ‘The Uplift Mofo Party Plan’, they other is from the then newly released ‘Californication’.