A few hours before the concert. There are thousands of people in front of the hall. There are hundred of sings “Looking for tickets”, but none with “Selling”. People with t-shirts, bandanas, body paintings waiting without any patience for everything to start. The picture was beautiful.
This is pretty much the expectation for a band like Red Hot Chili Peppers. They have been in Top 10 for decades for their talented, yet very different music and to be here in a small country like Bulgaria was a one life chance.
At exactly 20h everyone was inside the hall in ecstatic mood. On there stage, though, were an English band, called As Able As Kane. They are from the rave generation and had kind of a career in late 80s. And that’s why nobody has heard of them in Sofia, but they rocked the stage like they have never stopped playing music. It was a good beginning of a great thing.
And at 21h the Peppers began. From the first hit on the drums Chad Smith, we felt the chilli in the main dish. The sound was incredible. Soft and clean. Where entered Michael “Flea” Balzary in a very strange position – almost standing on his head, but playing like a machine. We saw and Josh Klinghoffer, but not in his whole power, cause he had broken his leg at one of their gigs and now was sitting at the corner of the stage. “But where is Anthony”, the people were wondering. Suddenly, he showed up jumping, without the left leg of his trousers. Flea was without the right one. Crazy funk style, just like from the beginning of their career.
The first song was “Monarchy of roses” – from their new album “I’m With You”. It was just like magic – everyone knew the lyrics and from the first song you just couldn’t really hear the voice of the frontman. The concert was just like watching your favourite movie for the first time – you don’t why, but your mouth is open all the time and just don’t want it to end.
The guys from the group are 45-50 years old, an age, at which most of us find it tiring to go outside, but had some kind of fire in them. I have never seen so much energy in one place. They are dancing and jumping and jumping and just can’t stop. They are playing their hits – in the setlist you could hear “Under the bridge” (during this song, the audience was so excited, that not only me, but nobody could hear Anthony – he was outsang), “Otherside”, “Can’t Stop”, “By the Way”, “Snow”, “Around the world”, “Blood sugar sex magik”. They had very different setlist for every country that they played in and fortunately for the fans, that have listened the band for a long time, the old goodies prevailed over the new album.
The encore. Well, that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. For over 10 minutes the people just kept yelling for an encore. Without taking a breath. Chad was throwing drum sticks and Flea tried and tried to speak, but without any success. For the encore, though, he didn’t need any talking. We saw his famous walking on hands and they gave three more songs of happiness, finishing like every their concert with Give it Away. We heard how great of an audience we are, how they love us, but they didn’t needed to say it – they just couldn’t leave the stage. I think that like every single person In the hall they wanted more. But that was it. Have you heard an audience that screams and sings after the concert, when they are already out? I did and I was one of them. Everyone was wet and thristy, but eager for more. Red Hot Chili Peppers showed us why are they are a band from world class. They showed us how much chili they have in theirselves and we found some in us as well. That was the greatest concert in Sofia this year without any doubts!
