By Rebecca Gallacher
Not many bands around today can be said to have the breadth of fans, the variety of songs, the endless energy and the overall longevity that amounts to rock n roll royalty. However, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are certainly contenders.
Their mighty to return Scottish arena was long awaited for the band. Having recently graced the T in the Park stage to mixed reviews, Anthony Kiedis and co. certainly had a lot to prove.
The first few chords of Can’t Stop captivated the cross-generational audience and the rest of the set list kept them worshipping at the majestic musical altar the band had made of the stage with the perfect blend of songs both old and new.
Riveting bass riffs from the effervescent Flea were, of course, expected by all. The sheer energy and enthusiasm with which the tightly bound bundle of muscles traversed the stage would leave even the greatest of athletes pausing for breath. The entire band, for that matter, seemed to have been graced with energy levels from the fountain of youth itself, and the audience lapped it up.
Despite their punk rock prowess the band do have some pretty perfect ballads, like Californication, which gave the show a softer edge and allowed the audience enough time to catch their breath before being launched into another mosh pit.
The music itself was enough to make this a truly stand out gig, however the light show took it to another level. The candle-effect lights that dangled from the ceiling and danced in time to the music were resplendent enough to make the great hall of Hogwarts look like an Ikea store set up.
It is a testament to how great their music playing abilities are that the main talking point of the night was not the Lionel Ritchie tribute-esque moustache which Kiedis has been sporting on his upper lip for quite some time now.
The band even managed to pronounce the city without resorting to that cringe inducing, patriot angering, “Glass-cow,” unlike other American bands, and even played their own rendition of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street which was met with rapturous applause.
The newest addition to the band, Josh Klinghoffer, who joined in 2009 is, at 37, nearly two decades younger than his punk rock band mates and was only four when the band first formed to hit Los Angeles with the screaming punk rock riffs which are so familiar to us now. Despite this the band sounded as well bonded as if they had popped out the womb together.
Despite the fact that they have been performing for over three decades the band still sound as fresh and as boundary pushing as they did back in Los Angeles in the eighties, this feat alone proves that they are indeed worthy of the decades of angst-ridden teenage worship which has evolved with each generation and has firmly cemented their status as punk rock royalty.
