We’re closing in on the most wonderful time of the year for music fans, where the lineups for festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza will all be announced within the next two months. You don’t have to be a Festival Outlook junkie to know that one band whose name will be in big, bold letters on one or more posters will be the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Whether you love ’em for their perseverance or hate ’em for thinking they passed their “best before date” ages ago, they’re going to be touring in 2012. A lot. Make that a disgusting amount. They may not break any U2 360° type records, but you had better start getting used to Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith, and “new” guitarist Josh Klinghoffer in their shirtless, tattooed glory.
The Chili Peppers have already played roughly 50 shows this year in support of their 10th album, I’m with You. While they have well over 200 of their own songs at their disposal, accumulated over a career that began innocently enough in 1983, the setlists so far have been leaning on a shall we say predictable selection of 30 or so songs. For a group that was just admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they kind of owe their devotees to mix and funk things up when they begin anew in North America for the first time in nearly five years.
10. “Nevermind”
It’s sad to think that any and all songs prior to 1991 landmark Blood Sugar Sex Magik are pretty much being ignored. “Nevermind”, off their 1985 album, Freaky Styley, is the quintessential Chili Peppers show opener. It has a great freestyle rap intro by former MC Kiedis, it’s one of the only times the band’s name is sung, and the man born Michael Balzary absolutely shines on the trumpet. Would be a hoot to see them do it now, to establish at the outset that RHCP are in tha house.
9. “Easily”
Funk has been the Chilis’ bread and butter for darn near 30 years now. We know that. “Easily”, song #7 from their 1999 comeback of sorts, Californication, is an easy one to overlook seeing as how it’s preceded by what some will debate are four of the band’s biggest hits ever. With its harder rock edge and a touch of sleazy GN’R blues, “Easily” tends to stand out and merits a place in RHCP’s 2012 setlists along with “Scar Tissue”, “Otherside”, and “Californication”, of course.
8. “My Lovely Man”
Astute Chili Peppers fans will no doubt point out that “My Lovely Man” actually saw the light of day in 2011. It was apparently teased as part of their O2 World (Berlin) show on December 4th. If the four skinny, sweaty men know what’s good for them, it won’t be the last time. It’s one of those songs that simply explodes out of the gate, only to settle into an almost calypso groove, and then roar back with a killer solo by then-axeman John Frusciante. Loud. Quiet. Loud again. So simple and so deserving of more plays.
7. “Funky Crime”
The advantage this song has is that it capsulizes the Chili Peppers’ raison d’être in four simple words: “Funk is my attitude.” That alone is reason enough for it to never be removed from RHCP setlists. I realize “Me and My Friends” is important because of how the lyrics mention Hillel Slovak, but they should really try to make room for a couple more from The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and other earlier albums.
6. “Readymade”
A badass baseline by Flea to kick start an RHCP song isn’t anything new, but this one from their second-to-last album, Stadium Arcadium, is a little… meaner. Meaner and heavier in a Rage Against the Machine headbanging vein. “Ready-made,” if you will, to be revived for major music festivals and big stadium shows.
5. “Search and Destroy” (The Stooges cover)
Aside from their powerful take on the Stevie Wonder classic “Higher Ground”, the Chili Peppers don’t seem to be covering as many songs as they used to. One they’ve always done straightforwardly well and should consider integrating back into their live sets is “Search and Destroy” (recorded during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik era). It’s not like Kiedis or Iggy Pop are going to be wearing shirts onstage anytime soon!
4. “Nobody Weird Like Me”
For all their hits and accolades, the Chilis can still make a crowd sweat more profusely than any Guatemalan insanity pepper. It wouldn’t hurt to remind people of this fact in 2012. They’d certainly get the picture after being thrashed around if the quasi-metal “Nobody Weird Like Me” is ever busted out again. Few RHCP songs are able to accomplish this better than this aggressively deep cut from 1989’s Mother’s Milk.
3. “Venice Queen”
Just because a song is over six minutes long doesn’t automatically make it an epic. “Venice Queen”, which closes 2002’s By the Way, truly is, though. Its dramatic tempo changes and acoustic “frantic folkiness,” especially at the end, are the kinds of stuff that should be concluding the Chilis’ main sets in 2012. Just imagine Klinghoffer strumming his heart out while his bandmates walk offstage one by one to take a breather before the encore. What’s that word again? Yeah, epic.
2. “I Could Have Lied”
The Chili Peppers have been touring long enough to know that a good setlist needs its share of slower-paced songs to balance the furiously funky ones that make up the bulk of their back catalog. Not sure if “I Could Have Lied” counts as a ballad, but not many other alt-rock tunes of the time can compare in terms of sheer heartache and regret. Its melancholic mellowness may even be a reason why they don’t play it much anymore. There is an incredible live version on the “Breaking the Girl” CD single that makes you yearn to want to hear it as soon as possible – like January 20th in Sunrise, Florida.
1. “Special Secret Song Inside”
As they rapidly approach 30 years of frequently lewd behavior, it’s amazing to think there’s only really been one time where a record label demanded that the Chilly Willies change a song title. That was for track eight of 1987’s The Uplift Mofo Party Plan; if for some strange reason you didn’t know it’s actually called “Party on Your Pussy”, Kiedis is (Ahem!) always happy to drive this point home. Here’s hoping he’ll be willing to oblige a few more times in their R&R H.o.F. induction year. Have mercy!
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