The Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Mars Volta made their Los Angeles homecoming Thursday night with one of two sold-out nights at the all-but-forgotten-since-losing-the-Lakers Great Western Forum. The Red Hot Cornerstone of KROQ Programming is on the road to promote the newest release, “Stadium Arcadium,” a double album four years in the making, following 2002’s “By The Way.”
Though the band’s frenzied back catalog does not always seem tailored for an arena-sized fit on record, the well-chosen mix of old and new tracks destroyed any doubt of the Chili Peppers’ ability to dominate a room.
Opening with an instrumental jam sans-singer Anthony Keidis, drummer Chad Smith, guitarist John Frusciante, and bassist Flea, the Chili Peppers warmed up their hands and fans before launching into the one-two punch of radio hits “Can’t Stop” and “Dani California,” the latter a newly-popular single from “Arcadium.” (KROQ personality “Jed the Fish” welcomed the crowd early, warning of a possible late start due to Flea’s being stuck in traffic and reminding everyone where to find overplayed rock music in the greater Los Angeles area.)
The hometown boys made a reference to their roots both in conversation and song selection throughout the night. Flea showed his age by talking about seeing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the Forum, which he called “some of the best days of [his] life,” and thanking the crowd, saying “I always get a little nervous when we play at home.”
The nostalgia continued as the band broke out songs from its recent and ancient past, including “Me and My Friends” from 1987’s “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan” and the title track from its 1991 breakout album “BloodSugar-SexMagik,” a rarity for the Chili Peppers setlist.
Another surprise oldie was Frusciante’s solo take on the Shirelle’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” which brought out lighters and cell phones across the arena and prompted an awkward high-five from a drunken couple one row in front of us.
Frusciante has arguably become the shining star of the Chili Peppers, since his return to the band after a lengthy heroin addiction on 1999’s “Californication.” The guitarist has added depth and layers to the group’s music. This has helped the group become one of the biggest bands in the world today.
Live, Frusciante is a powerhouse, his stack of a half-dozen Marshall amps pour out notes that don’t seem possible from such a slender man in a blue velvet suit. The guitarist’s flailing hair and spot-on vocals make him an integral part to the Chili Peppers’ mix.
Much of the success of the Chili Peppers shows are due to the wide demographic of fans the band has accumulated over the last 20-plus years in action. The band seems to feed off the energy of the crowd. Keidis kept up his flailing, seizure-esque dance moves throughout the entire show, which most often seems equal parts rock god and six-year-old tantrum.
The Chili Peppers added a twist to the classic arena lighting design; instead of keeping the show solely focused on one end of the room, the group extended it to the length of the floor via lighting bars that hung over the crowd. Combined with four large video screens behind the band, this trick which illuminated the whole floor in red during the opening of the show and the encore, as well as brightening up the omnipresent marijuana cloud, made the entire performance more three-dimensional for fans in the back than the musicians on stage.
The Chili Peppers set their own bar high by having to outdo the performance of tour mates the Mars Volta. These Long Beach natives had twice the personnel as the Chili Peppers on the stage and tried to fill their set with twice the energy in their one-hour time slot. Being the sole openers, the Mars Volta were surprisingly punctual, starting its set one minute before the time on the ticket, while most of the crowd was not yet in the building.
The Mars Volta is the brainchild of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, former members of At the Drive-In, both of which were in fine form Thursday night.
Rodriguez’s guitar work, which has evolved and matured astonishingly fast since his punk-rock days in ATDI, played Jimmy Page to Bixler’s Robert Plant, though neither Led Zeppelin alumni could keep up with the frenetic dance moves of these contemporaries.
The band opened with “Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)” from their seminal album “De-Loused in the Comatorium.” An instrumental break extended the song from its seven-minute record length to an impressive 16-minute freak-out.
Bixler regularly worm-crawls across the stage on his stomach, swinging his microphone to alternately batter his body and as a sort of modified hacky-sack. Rodriguez flings his guitar around his body like an abused salsa partner, while keyboardist Isaiah “Ikey” Owens – formerly of Long Beach Dub All-Stars – bounced between his keyboards like a coked-up epileptic.
One of the sharp edges for fans and critics alike is that watching the Volta often seems more like a practice than a show; they interact with each other, but not the crowd, more like theater performers than musicians.
Moderate radio hit “The Widow,” from their last album “Frances the Mute,” followed Roulette Dares, getting the greatest applause from the audience who seemed otherwise unfamiliar with the band. The last three songs of the Volta’s set came from their forthcoming album “Amputechture,” due out Sept. 12, which includes extensive guitar work by Frusciante, longtime friend of the Mars Volta.
The band continued to break in new drummer Blake Fleming, who began performing with the band in early August after the much-maligned departure of original drummer Jon Theodore. Fleming admirably aped Theodore’s style while still managing to add his own stamp to the music.
A bongo solo by percussionist Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, the guitarist’s younger brother, highlighted the final song of the set, “Day of the Baphomets.”
The intensity of The Mars Volta’s and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ live sets make both band a must-see on their own. Seeing them together, however, makes the entire event unforgettable.