Red Hot Chili Peppers Live In Hyde Park 2 disc album review thingAug 02 '04 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Worth a try 4.5 stars Earlier this year I had the pleasure of going to one of the three Red Hot Chili peppers concerts in London’s Hyde Park. It is fair to say that it was one of the more memorable things to have happened in my short and otherwise boring lifetime and so the opportunity to relive those moments was something I would have dearly like to have done. And wouldn’t you know it, the Chili Peppers go and release the entire thing in a double disk set! Although any of you out there from the good ol’ USA wont be getting this but I presume you will get a Chili Peppers live CD at some point, that’s if you haven’t got one already in which case I stand corrected. Red Hot Chili Peppers Live In Hyde Park was recorded over three concerts (19th, 20th and 25th of June 2004) in one of the big parks in London. Around 100,000 people attended (not sure whether that’s a total figure of for each set, my estimation for my day was ‘bloody loads’) and so there is a suitably large amount of crowd noise on the CD. Or at least there should have been had this been entirely live, however like most of this CDs contemporaries it has been mildly fiddled with in the studio *cough*Anthony’s voice*cough* and the crowd noise has thankfully been reduced slightly, surprisingly without losing any of the live effect. Indeed, the whole effect of this CD is much better than every other live album I’ve heard because its managed to capture the enormous energy that the Chili Peppers perform with on stage and avoids sounding hollow and lifeless like so many of these things end up being. That’s not to say that the sound quality isn’t a little rough around the edges so any of you who don’t know what a live performance sounds like may find it difficult to get into the CD at first. Pros The musicianship on offer here is as you would expect superb, Flea rattles of those basslines with great accuracy and although he doesn’t deviate from the studio forms of the songs is still highly impressive to hear the best bassist in the world perform some of his greatest tunes. The guitarist John Frusciante however sees fit to tamper with many of his riffs and this livens up the CD no end to hear different versions of some of the same old songs. His guitar playing which goes without saying, is magnificent and is probably one of the best reasons to indulge yourself in this album. He’s also managed to get round the potential problem of his harmonies (on the proper albums he’s overdubbed against himself many times) by singing in a very high pitch were the harmonies were on the songs and whilst at first his vocals appear slightly lonely all on their own, they start to sound much much better once you get used to them. The drummer, Chad Smith is the one let down the most by the Live CD mainly because he was acting funny throughout the gig and obviously you cant see that here. However he also gets to show off in places and keeps up his usual high standards. It has to be said that Anthony Kiedis is hardly the best singer in the world but at the same time he’s certainly not the worst. Here his voice is strengthened ever so slightly just because he has a habit of sounding breathless or not actually singing into the microphone on some of the more manic numbers and so his vocals needed a bit of touching up in the studio, nothing major however and he’s on good overall form. As a little side note he appears to forget the first verse of Purple stain and replaces it with ‘doos’ and ‘daas’, wonder if that was intentional. Many of the songs were also impressive (which I shall be getting too later) Also good were the times when the band talked to the crowd, especially Flea as his contributions were much funnier than Anthony’s quite abstract ramblings (mainly about James Brown who played a great set as an opener for the Peppers and other weirdnesses such as ‘how to break into Buckingham place’) The occasional Jamming session by Chad, John and Flea between songs were also pretty class. Cons The fact that Blood Sugar Sex Magik is criminally underused getting only two songs (you can almost certainly guess which) and that anything before that album gets no songs whatsoever. Surely some of the By the way and Californication stuff could have been sacrificed! If you chose to listen to this really loud using headphones some of John’s favourite high pitched squealing solos will probably have adverse affects on your ears! Could have done with more ‘band talking to the crowd’ bits just to make it extra fun. Why didn’t John get a better song to sing dammit!?! The songs From By the Way we get a rather brilliantly frenetic version of Cant Stop, a gloriously extended By the Way complete with a great guitar solo bit added onto the end, A rather bog standard but nevertheless enjoyable version of Universally speaking, a boring version of both Don’t Forget me and Throw Away your television and finally a thoroughly decent playing of the zephyr song From californication there is a cheerful rendition of Around the world, a version of scar tissue which John manages to turn the second half into a series of long solos, a brilliant playing of Otherside which surpasses the album version (not easy to do), a rocking Easily which suffer from the album version having overdubbed guitar parts which John obviously cant replicate, A rather bland Get on top which sounds far too much like the album version (even in its clean delivery) and so seems lifeless, The aforementioned fairly good playing of Purple Stain, a rousingly fantastic Californication which comes with a new and improved guitar solo, a glorious Right on time including some great backing vocals and guitar and Anthony’s high speed delivery and an average interpretation of Parallel universe From BSSM there are the always brilliant Under the Bridge and Give it away, the latter containing a six minute jamming session from Chad, John and Flea straight after it finishes. Fortune Faded also finds its way onto the CD and although I got thoroughly bored by the studio version after about five listens, the live version is much better and a great song to do a little dance too (if you like that sort of thing). Aside from the regular songs there are a few oddities to keep the disc interesting. Firstly there are a set of covers, the first of which John and Flea’s version of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love is kept short and aside from proving that John has a good set of lungs on him and that he can falsetto it with the best of them, this short little ditty is rather badly marred by the poor choice of song. The next cover is a huge improvement however, that of Looking Glass’s Brandy. It’s what I would call a relaxing feel good tune with an addictive chorus and backing singing and is well worth hearing. The third and final cover is another strange choice, going into Heavy-ish metal territory by covering 45 Grave’s Black Cross which is an impressive and interesting departure from the norm. There are a couple of throwaway tracks in the form of Drum Homage medley and the slightly better Flea’s trumpet treated by John. The first being a collection of three different drum lines from 3 famous bands (Led Zeppelin, U2 and Queen) and to be perfectly honest, I cant see the point. The second is just what it says in the title Fleas trumpet interpreted by John’s guitar, intriguing but the sound will most likely get on your nerves, and I would have preferred just a straight trumpet solo. Most interesting are the two brand spanking new songs which we get on the CD. The first Rolling Sly Stone is the funkiest thing the band have done for ages, and it’s damn good! A thudding bassline and cutting guitar back Anthony’s laid back vocals and the Hook before the chorus is brilliance. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of the laid back cool of Brandy. The second song Leverage of space………Is equally as good. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of a John Frusciante solo project type of song with its spacy bass, soft and tuneful guitar and Anthony’s vulnerable sounding voice which all peaks in a rousing chorus helped brilliant by Frusciante’s backing vocals. It even goes into a Frusciante style breakdown where Anthony mutters his vocals as Flea’s soothing bass sends you into almost a trance like state. I would love to see these two in studio version on the bands next album as they are both good enough to be brilliant singles. Summary Is this for you? Well if you’re a mild Chili peppers fan I would say maybe, depending on whether or not you like the sound of live music, and if you a hardcore fan I would despite its initial appearance as something with novelty value and not much else (a notion which will be disproved when you buy it). Think you will enjoy it, I certainly did and I’m a hardcore peppers fan owning all the albums (even the ones I had to pay through the nose to import) and so I think it’s a bit of fun that everyone can enjoy. Hope I’ve been helpful. ***** = Cant Stop, Scar tissue, By The Way, Fortune Faded, Otherside, Rolling Sly Stone, Leverage of Space, the Zephyr song, Californication, Right on Time, Under the Bridge, Give it away, Brandy. **** = Around the World, Easily, Dont Forget Me, Universally speaking, Purple Stain, Parallel Universe, Black cross. *** = I Feel love, Get on Top, Throw away your television, Drum homage medley, Flea's trumpet treated by John. ** = NONE * = NONE Disc 1 Intro Cant Stop Around The World Scar Tissue By The Way Fortune Faded I Feel love Otherside Easily Universally speaking Get on Top Brandy Dont Forget Me Rolling Sly Stone Disc 2 Throw Away Your Television Leverage of Space Purple Stain Zephyr Song Californication Right On Time Parallel Universe Drum Homage Medley Under the Bridge Black Cross Flea's trumpet treated by John Give It Away  |
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