Fans Criticize Red Hot Chili Peppers After Recent Show: ‘Absolutely Gutted By That Performance’

A new report by News.com.au details some of the negative reactions concertgoers had after a recent Red Hot Chili Peppers show in Sydney, Australia. As the source explains, they accuse the band of “an underwhelming” concert due to a lack of hits in the setlist.

The show in question took place at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on February 2. It’s a part of their massive 2022 and 2023 tour and the Chili Peppers opened up this year’s run with New Zealand and Australia shows. For the southern hemisphere, they’re accompanied by Post Malone as the opener.

In particular, the fans were critical of the setlist which included seven tracks from their two latest albums, “Unlimited Love” and “Return of the Dream Canteen,” both coming out in 2022. The report shares some of the concertgoers’ comments from social media. One reads:

“Wish I could take back my decision to go to RHCP. Absolutely gutted by that performance.”

Another one shares the same disappointment, offering:

“Well that was disappointing, definitely won’t be seeing them again!!!“

One of the fans wasn’t entirely dissatisfied, although the issue was enough for them to leave a negative review, saying:

“Good experience (but) won’t see em again. Their set was new song focused and the crowd struggled to feel it.”

However, for some, this was enough to give up on the Chili Peppers altogether. One of the fans offered:

“Been their biggest fan all my life and after that concert would never go again. Played a few old songs but mostly new rubbish that no one knows.”

Another fan argues that fans paid the tickets so that they could hear the classics. They said:

“Maybe for the people on Saturday you could play some of the songs we paid to come and see … very disappointing“

And then another one also added how they’re not the only ones around who were let down by the whole thing, saying:

“I’m glad we are not the only disappointed people. Set was pretty ordinary.“

On the other hand, there were also fans who disagreed with this stance. After all, the band is promoting the latest two albums, who came with almost 40 songs total and there were only seven of those on this setlist. One of the fans argued in RHCP’s defense:

“Of course they’re gonna play new stuff when they released two new albums last year.”

Another one shared the same opinion, claiming:

“They were touring their new album, it’s not a greatest hits tour.”

And another one called it “the greatest concert I’ve ever been to.”

The setlist in question went like this:

1. Intro Jam
2. Can’t Stop (2002)
3. The Zephyr Song (2002)
4. Here Ever After (2022)
5. Snow (Hey Oh) (2006)
6. Eddie (2022)
7. Throw Away Your Television (2002)
8. Reach Out (2022)
9. Soul to Squeeze (1993)
10. Nobody Weird Like Me (1989)
11. These Are the Ways (2022)
12. The Heavy Wing (2022)
13. Californication (1999)
14. Pea (1995)
15. The Drummer (2022)
16. Black Summer (2022)
17. By the Way (2002)

Encore:

1. Sir Psycho Sexy (1991)
2. They’re Red Hot (Robert Johnson cover)
3. Give It Away (1991)

So out of 19 songs, if we exclude the intro jam, seven were from these two new records. That’s about 38% of the entire setlist. Whether that’s a lot, we’ll leave that up to you to decide.

In a last year’s interview, the former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who was a replacement for the classic member John Frusciante, talked about his experience with the band. Looking back on it and remembering how it all came to an abrupt end in the late December of 2019, he offered:

“Obviously, it’s sad when something is taken from you. I did a perfect 10 years with them, but for as much as I love those guys and loved playing with them, it was also enormously stifling creatively.“

“They’re an established band with an established sound, and I learned over time how little deviating from that was possible.” 

He also added:

“When I first joined, I wouldn’t use certain chords when I was writing if they sounded like something John would play. Or if it sounded like a choice they would have made on their last album, I purposely went the other way.” 

“I thought I was doing a good job of writing music with them, but it wound up not kind of becoming part of my story, or if it is part of my story with them, it’s a small part. As much as I thought they were up for experimentation, they generally stayed in their own lane.” 

During his time, in the band, Josh recorded two albums, 2011’s “I’m With You” and 2016’s “The Getaway.” In another interview published in summer of 2022, the musician spoke about working on these two records, offering:

“I feel like this could be a long answer. Perhaps we can do a sit-down tell-all someday. I’m serious; someday, that’d be fun. At this point, however, I might be a little too close to leaving to look back without a heavily biased and potentially warped opinion.”

“I’m incredibly conflicted about my output with that band because I feel like, in both circumstances, producers got in the way of us truly making great music or a great record. I like almost all of the songs that we wrote together, but seldom did we capture them in the best way.“

Going more into it, Klinghoffer expressed his dissatisfaction with the way how producer Rick Rubin worked. Known for his odd ways, Rubin was at the helm for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 2011 album “I’m With You.” Josh commented:

“I will say that in the case of ‘I’m With You, ‘I feel Rick Rubin was way more a hindrance than a help. He told me once, ‘I just want to help the songs be the best they can be.‘ I should’ve said, ‘Well, then get your driver to come and get you.‘”

Photos: Kreepin Deth (RHCP Live in London 26 June 2022)