It’s time to plan your getaway for February when Red Hot Chili Peppers embark on their first Australian tour in more than 12 years.
They are one of the best-selling bands of all time, with a back catalogue that houses a wealth of instantly recognisable hit singles.
Through a jam band style of music that blends funk, punk, psychedelic and alt rock, Red Hot Chili Peppers established a sound during the ‘80s and ‘90s that was definitively Californian, as surf bands like The Beach Boys had done in the ‘60s.
Red Hot Chili Peppers reflected a California of their time, a shifting landscape of competing subcultures – punks, skaters, metalheads and the burgeoning West Coast hip hop scene among them – all vying for exposure on a bustling and crowded foreshore of music.
Between the peaks of Haight-Ashbury psychedelic, Orange County punk, South Bay hardcore and the alternative rock sounds of their native Los Angeles, Red Hot Chili Peppers reside in a sonic territory of their own making.
The band was formed in 1983 in Los Angeles by singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Michael Peter Balzary, affectionately known as Flea.
The original line-up also included guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons; neither played on the band’s 1984 self-titled debut album – Slovak featured on their subsequent two albums ‘Freaky Styley’ (1985) and ‘The Mofo Uplift Party Plan’ (1987) but died from a heroin overdose in 1988, and as a result Irons left the group soon after.
The band’s longest-running and best-known line-up of Kiedis, Flea, guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith came to be that same year and went on to record five studio albums together, including ‘Mother’s Milk’ (1989), ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ (1991), ‘Californication’ (1999), ‘By The Way’ (2002) and ‘Stadium Arcadium’ (2006).
In 2009, Frusciante announced he was leaving the band to focus on his solo career and was replaced by their current guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
For their 1995 album ‘One Hot Minute’, the band employed guitarist/ tattoo aficionado Dave Navarro, who was summarily fired in 1998 due to ‘creative differences’, which is fancy industry talk for ‘drug addict’.
Though drugs, and particularly drug abuse, come part-and-parcel with Red Hot Chili Peppers, whether it’s in their lyrics or their personal lives. Kiedis’ own problems with addictions have stalled recording sessions and marred live performances, though as he sings in their 2016 single 'Dark Necessities', “Dark necessities are part of my design”.
Strangely enough, the most respected member – and arguably most successful outside of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – is a man named after a blood-sucking parasite, who has also been known to perform near-naked/ in a flaming helmet.
In addition to being one of the finest purveyors of funky-as-hell slap-bass in the modern era, Flea has also acted in more than 20 films since 1984, including ‘Back To The Future Part II’ and ‘Part III”, ‘Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas’ and ‘Baby Driver’ as well as providing the voice of wild-boy Donnie in the animated series ‘The Wild Thornberrys’. Plus he was born in Melbourne, so that means he’s basically ours.
Red Hot Chili Peppers released their most recent album ‘The Getaway’ in 2016 (which was produced by Danger Mouse) and are reported to be working on a new release but won’t be ready to ‘give it away’ until sometime in 2019.
Until then, Red Hot Chili Peppers play nationally in Australia February to March.
Red Hot Chili Peppers 2019 Tour Dates
Sun 17 Feb - Derwent Entertainment Centre (Hobart)19-20 Feb - Qudos Bank Arena (Sydney)
Sat 23 Feb - Hope Estate (Hunter Valley)
25-26 Feb - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Thu 28 Feb - Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne)
Sat 2 Mar - A Day On The Green, Mt Duneed Estate (Geelong)
Sun 3 Mar - Superloop Adelaide 500 After-Race Concert
Tue 5 Mar - NIB Stadium (Perth)
