What is it with California and funk/rap-metal? When the founding fathers were pushing eastward, did they finally reach the settlements of the fabled west coast, having endured terrible hardship, only to find the streets paved not with gold but funk metal? There seems no good explanation for it but, from Faith No More and Fishbone to Primus and Rage Against The Machine, California is the birthplace of the combined slap bass, metal-edged, ‘fonky’ groove and semi-spoken vocal brigade.
Paramount among them are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose grip on the genre refuses to slacken after 20 years, despite one heroin OD and the fact that guitarist John Frusciante appears to be trapped in a revolving door. In fact, the four are now more unit-shiftingly, stadium-packingly popular than ever, as their appearance over three days at Hyde Park proves.
The day’s rain may have dampened the grass, but it couldn’t piss on the crowd’s rampant enthusiasm. Right from the start – the clipped, entirely appropriate "Can’t Stop" – it’s clear no one here needs winning over. Anthony Keidis – who resembles a younger, gym-toned Iggy Pop – jogs on stage, his white, crop-trousered suit flashing in the last of the day’s light and launches into what amounts to his band’s manifesto: "Can’t stop, addicted to the shindig…this punk, the feeling that you pay for".
Tonight’s set draws almost overwhelmingly from 1999’s "Californication", the album chiefly responsible for the band’s mainstream crossover. Just two songs (the maudlin "Under The Bridge" and a jabbering "Give It Away", both saved for the encore) are pulled from "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", which many hardcore fans judge to be their finest hour. To hell with history, they’re playing to the new heartland.
Two songs in and already Frusciante is back-flipping on the floor like a landed fish, later standing chest to chest with Flea for a mock axe duel during the poppy "Otherside" and proving himself no slouch in the rock theatrics stakes. With their sock-worn-on-cock days mercifully far behind them – the band have developed a wry (and vital) self-awareness, tonight referencing disco (the steal from Donna Summer’s "I Feel Love" that opens "Easily"), covering the Looking Glass hit "Brandy" and slipping into full, James Brown homage-paying mode during a jerktastic "Get On Top".
There’s really no arguing anyone into an appreciation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers any more than there is steak tartare or tasselled loafers, but there’s also no denying that they’re extremely accomplished, funk-metal fusionists. You might not like what they serve up, but tonight, they were cookin’.
