Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live At Slane Castle (DVD)

...the pure ecstasy of a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig unless you’ve been to one, but this DVD is close. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a band since 1983, and ever since their groundbreaking album Blood Sugar Sex Magick, they have been considered Music Legends. Their legacy has inspired hundreds of established bands, and thousands if not millions of unsigned bands. Their line-up, ever changing in the early years, is and always has been incredible. ...
...It’s no disappointment either, The Red Hot Chili Peppers always do justice to the songs that they cover, as you can hear on their live album and when you see them live. The four men are very passionate about the covers they do, and they always play them like they are their own songs. With Havana Affair too, the song sounds like one of their own. It’s a brilliant cover version done Red Hot Chili Peppers style. Flea and John Frusciante walk over to ... more

You can't begin to even imagine the pure atmosphere and the pure ecstasy of a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig unless you’ve been to one, but this DVD is close. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a band since 1983, and ever since their groundbreaking album Blood Sugar Sex Magick, they have been considered Music Legends. Their legacy has inspired hundreds of established bands, and thousands if not millions of unsigned bands. Their line-up, ever changing in the early years, is and always has been incredible. You have the highly important rhythm section of Chad Smith on drums and Michael “Flea” Balzary on bass. Chad Smith is the number one inspiration of a large group of young modern drummers, as he revolutionised funk-rock drumming, and Flea is just so good on bass, you would think he invented the instrument. John Frusciante is not only an amazing guitarist, but his backing vocals are good enough to be lead singer. After going through a period of six years where he never even touched a guitar, his playing is absolutely amazing, and his voice is so recognisably brilliant and stunning. And then you have Anthony Kiedis, who is probably the perfect front man. He easily mixes rapping with singing, and his lyrics are so inspiring and enlightening. He doesn’t play an instrument, but his on-stage dancing will entertain anyone.

So it was the year 2003, when the band played to some 80, 000+ die hard Irish fans at Slain Castle. This, you can imagine, would be slightly disappointing for the folk at the back! But really, for most of them, it’s their choice to stay there. There is a big screen there which the fans can look at whilst listening to the concert live, many feet away. Looking at the massive crowd on the front of the DVD case we can also see food stands, which make the gig look like a festival. But it’s a well-known fact that a Chili Peppers concert is a huge show. They are usually backed by two or three support bands, one usually quite local, and the others will be much bigger bands. The Chili Peppers will then come on to play a gig of about two to two and a half hours long.

Putting this fantastic DVD in sets the gig off straight away as wee see the branch of a nearby tree in front of about a tenth of the crowd, which erupts as the band walk onstage to play a jam. Then real-life is transformed into a cartoon drawing and the interactive DVD menu. Here you can select the following options: Play Concert, Track Selection, Wallpaper Extras, and Audio Set Up. Instantly, you need to press Play Concert. It’s here that one slightly annoying thing happens. It shows you the whole thing again. But instead of going straight into the cartoon, we can hear the whole jam by the three instrumentalists of the band. The Irish crowd, one of the best in the world, are so excited you almost feel that you are there. After the Jam, Anthony Kiedis comes on to the guitar riff of By The Way, in which the crowd once again explode, and their singing is nearly louder than the lead vocalist. A nice little camera trick shows Anthony Kiedis jumping in mid air and spinning around in a sort of Matrix style.

The band are as excited as the crowd are, and as the lights flash, the four men give it their all and already they are producing an electric show. The camera spins in and out of the 80, 000 fans, and you can see that even the people who are far back are enjoying themselves. Flea, dressed in a skeleton suit is dancing around and playing his bass guitar with such energy he nearly falls over at some points. The reaction from the crowd as they finish the first song is amazing, they are still cheering wildly as the band reach their second jam which suddenly jumps into their massive hit Scar Tissue. It’s during this song that a particularly rowdy fan falls from the blown up chair that his friends are holding up, perfectly caught on camera and probably put on the big screen at the gig. Something to show the grand-children in the years to come I suppose!

John Frusciante is enjoying himself, and producing guitar solos worthy of remembrance, where in the recorded songs he only has little guitar fills. Flea keeps to his usual part and the spotlight really is on the lead guitarist as he pulls of some amazing things on his instrument. The end of the song comes with a “Hello Ireland, Welcome to Slain” by Anthony Kiedis, and still the music hasn’t stopped since the introduction jam. Flea now pulls of a bass solo with distortion effects, showing off those very impressive skills he learned from only God knows where. The solo ends with the start of the next song, “Around The World”. The particularly funky punky song from the Californication era. This is Kiedis’ second chance to have a little rap, and we all know he is no Snoop Dogg, but his rapping style is much better than Gangsta rapping anyway. The musical breakdown in the middle is phenomenal, and the lights are flashing mad, leading me to thinking why the DVD never had a warning about them. The end of the song comes near and the lights shine a bright orange colour as Kiedis shows of some of those dancing skills of his and the rest of the band build up to finish on a perfect cadence. It’s here that John Frusciante does his usual solo cover, and this time it is the heartbreaking “Maybe” by The Chantels, which goes down very well with the fans. Flea then shouts “Ladies and Gentlemen! John Frusciante! John Anthony Motherf***ng Frusciante!” The band then burst into their pop hit Universally Speaking, loved by the crowd who clap, dance, and jump along, not to mention singing to the top of their voices. The song has so much positively and energy about it, creating a happy mood as the sun begins to set…

Flea then gains the favour of the Irish fans by saying “If I was smart, I’d move to Ireland” which as you can imagine, goes down very well with the fans. The band then begin to play what sounds like one of their hits, Parallel Universe, but then the cover a little bit of Fugazi’s Latest Disgrace as the introduction to it. The band’s own song is utterly amazing live. Chad Smith has so much energy on the drums and John Frusciante’s guitar playing is truly inspiring. His solo at the end of the song just makes you wish you were there, at Slain Castle, even if you are not particularly a fan of the band. Chad Smith and John Frusciante are the real stars of this song, and they play it from the bottom of their hearts. The crowd are enjoying themselves so much at this point that they break into a chant of “O-Lay!” while the band break into their next song, The Zephyr Song, another feel good hit from the By The Way album. The “Old-school” fans of the band may be a little bored by all this however, as many prefer the older funkier stuff from the Blood Sugar Magick days. But for most, they are enjoying the pop-rock sounds of By The Way. There are still funk elements in there, how could there not be with that rhythm section after all? As the sunset reaches it’s most beautiful point, Flea takes the time to appreciate it telling the fans to “breathe it in long and deep” before playing Throw Away Your Television in which it’s all about the Rhythm Section. Although in 2003, this is a very new song, it still keeps the older fans happy, as it is very funky and uses emphatic drum beats and Flea-style basslines. Anthony Kiedis removed his top before the band started to play this song, to the cheers of all the female members of the audience, because although by this point, it is nearly fully dark, the energy of the four members of the band coupled with the strong stage lights will make it very hot and sweaty onstage. The best thing about this song live is the ending which they never recorded. Every musician keeps to the key and jams over Kiedis’ “I said don’t you wait for me”. The jam is always amazing and Slain Castle is no different. There is a very impressive camera shot of John Frusciante soloing in front of the castle and then he walks away. An image forever planted in your memory when you see it.

Flea then announces that the band are now going to do a full cover: Havana Affair by The Ramones. It’s no disappointment either, The Red Hot Chili Peppers always do justice to the songs that they cover, as you can hear on their live album and when you see them live. The four men are very passionate about the covers they do, and they always play them like they are their own songs. With Havana Affair too, the song sounds like one of their own. It’s a brilliant cover version done Red Hot Chili Peppers style. Flea and John Frusciante walk over to each other and whenever you see the famous image of those two just looking at each other, you know something very special is coming up. They count in and the band’s next song is the very popular Otherside. Although John’s guitar playing is very simple (This was written just after the period where he hadn’t touched a guitar in over six years) the song is simply amazing. Chad Smith does an impressive little drum solo in the middle where there is usually just a simple funk drum beat. But we must always keep in mind that the Chili Peppers, along with a lot of other great bands like to play songs a little differently to how they sound on CD. After the breakdown in the middle where Anthony does his rap-singing technique, and John Frusciante does a small solo, the final chorus is electrifying and leaves the crowd stunned, but begging for more … And believe me, a lot more comes. The lights turn purple straight away and it’s here that they play a song from Californication called Purple Stain, which is very funky and if you look closely at the crowd you can see them dancing along. This one is so great because it is pure funk up until the utterly amazing ending where it’s more rocky and builds up so well. Chad Smith drums so incredibly well that people chant his name as the song ends. Flea leads the whole Irish crowd proudly into their national anthem, then lets them sing it themselves. He then exclaims that there are 80, 000 Irish people in attendance, and his great grandmother is Irish, so it’s actually 80, 000 and one quarter. He then leads the band into the next song, Don’t Forget Me. The song is another one which is just brilliant live. It’s a slower song but never loses any energy, because it’s a slow but loud song, with such sublime lyrics, and brilliant musicality. At the end of the song, Kiedis is so breathless he can barely sing the ending. The music is very relaxing at the end with the pure Red Hot Chili Peppers sound, and it once again ends up being Flea on his own as he solitarily ends it.

Next up sounds like another cover, “London’s Calling” by The Clash, but it’s just an intro to Right On Time. The short song from Californication. This is another funkier one, and the energy is very high again, as the lights flash and the crowd sings along and jumps up and down to the music. The lights them dim and the stage is black as Flea plays a single note in semi-quavers and Chad Smith does the drum equivalent. The fans are so excited when they hear the guitar come in because it is the start of the band’s mega-hit Can’t Stop. Some of the crowd attempt to sing along with Anthony but others just sing the much easier backing vocals. The whole crowd joins in one as the chorus kicks in and both the band and the crowd are loving it. The camera once again show the back of the crowd who are still enjoying themselves just as much as the die hard fans at the front. Flea plays slap-bass nearly the whole song giving it a really funky rock sound.

The next thing that happens is amazing. The lights dim, the crowd are cheering, and the band play a slow creepy thing with guitar effects and soft drums in an atmosphere described by the band as “Stadium Arcadium”, the name of the album that isn’t out by this point. This leads into an amazing rendition of Venice Queen, one of the band’s most emotional songs. The camera work on the DVD makes it extra special fading out between the band and audience, and we see the tree at the side of the stage that introduced us to the whole gig at the start. There doesn’t seem to be one member of the audience who isn’t completely stunned by the experience at this point and the band break the song down and into the emotional second part, with such a triumphant ending, Anthony singing “Goodbye, So Long” in memory of his dead friend, and also signalling that the end of the gig is near. There is a nice bit of humour when Flea tells the crowd that the band are small and humble in the crowd’s presence, to which Anthony says “Except Chad, he’s pretty big.” Then the band play their old classic Give It Away from Blood Sugar Sex Magick. They improvise parts of it but the song is there in all it’s glory and you can literally taste the amazing atmosphere created by the band and fans together. The band then move off after thanking the audience so much, who stay where they are expecting the upcoming encore. Chad returns first to play a drum solo in time to shouts of “O-Lay!” from the thousands of fans. Flea then joins him onstage for a jam with his trumpet, showing that not only is he an amazing bassist, but he can play trumpet too! Then comes John Frusciante for a jam with Flea, for about three minutes and there is again, such a buzz in the air as the jam slows down and quietens into a brilliant performance of Californication. The band finish with another classic, Under The Bridge, and Power Of Equality, and walk backstage to fireworks and 80, 000 Irish fans cheering as loud as they can for a brilliant band. For us watching at home, we can almost feel as these people feel, as the credits roll and Redemption Song by Joe Strummer plays. The DVD finishes a little early as the band also did Soul to Squeeze, which was removed from the DVD as John broke a string during the song.

Moving on to the DVD Extras, and to be honest, they are pretty pointless. They are the “Wallpaper Tracks”. One option here is “TV Screensaver” Which is a collection of different images and animations which were on the screen behind the band as they were playing. There is no music playing whilst this is viewed. The others are the same but one for Give It Away, The Zephyr Song, Right On Time, Can’t Stop, Throw Away Your Television, and Parallel Universe. These ones do have the music however.

Overall, the DVD is fantastic excluding the extras. It’s a moving, cinematic performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are a fantastic band, and this DVD proves it. 

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