By David Lucas, Rock At Night Orlando
Live Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers w/The Strokes and Thundercat – Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida – September 15, 2022
It’s 3:00 PM and time to hit the road, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. Living an hour from Orlando means you need to leave early to account for traffic on the turnpike and the 408. For this show, I’m not going alone, I have my friend Greg joining me. We arrive with time to spare. Media check-in isn’t till 5:45 PM and we make our way through the gate. Standing outside waiting for a media representative to bring us credentials, the door opens, as the rain starts to sprinkle down.
Sitting in a room with nine other fellow photographers as the rain continues to come down harder and harder. Thunderstorms with lightning continue to pass through the area causing a 2-hour delay for the show. Around 8:00 PM, they finally gave us the word 8:30 PM, Showtime.
We walked down to the stage front and the rain continued to come down, not as hard as before, but still enough to distort your view of the far side of the stadium. Looking up at a massive 9-ft High stage the first thing that catches our eye is a cat’s head that takes up about an eighth of the front of the stage.
8:30 PM to 8:50 PM: Thundercat takes the stage, and the stadium comes to life. Was it still raining? I don’t know and I don’t believe anyone else did either. The sounds from Thundercat’s bass rang out across the stadium and the more he played the louder everyone got. Time in the photo pit is always quick, but this time it was more of a flash and it was over. I remember when “How Sway” started and the speed of his fingers was completely unreal. This guy has to be one of the fastest bassist I have ever had the pleasure of watching live. Due to rain delay Thundercat set time was cut short by 10 minutes.
9:15 PM to 9:40 PM: The Strokes make their way out with some lingering rain still in the area. This is a band that formed in 1998 and is still all the original members. The music kicks up and vocalist Julian Casablancas takes the mic with “The Modern Age”. Even with this Florida rain, this was not enough for Julian. Holding a red solo cup he answers the chants to drink it and tries to explain that it’s only water. To prove it, he then dumps the cup over his head. Even with some technical difficulties that may have been because of the weather, they could still perform a memorable show. The rest of their set included Bad Decisions, Under Control, Juicebox, The Adults Are Talking and Last Nite. Due to rain delay The Strokes set time was cut by 20 minutes.
10:05 PM to 11:45 PM: The rain finally stopped. And just in time. It’s a streak of hopping and jumping flying by from the right side of the stage to the left… It’s Flea! Next out are Chad and John and the trio begin playing a super catchy four and a half minute instrumental leading right into “Around the World” from their 1999 Californication album while Anthony Kiedis comes running out to join his band members. While Chad hits a few licks on the drums, Flea takes a moment to thank everyone for sticking around through the weather and running right into “Dani California”. Next song up, also from Californication “Scar Tissue”, a song that you could hear nearly everyone singing along to, including those of us in the photo pit. Up next, the first song of the tour title album, Unlimited Love, Aquatic Mouth Dance.
The 2006 “Snow (Hey oh)” is being performed as I am carrying my gear out so I can rejoin Greg and finish watching the rest of the show from our seats. As I walk outside of the stadium with fellow photographer Bailey, we can hear the singing from the audience with every “Hey oh!” Back inside, unfortunately missing “These Are the Ways”, another Unlimited Love release. Now being able to see the full stage, the production from afar was outstanding. Each side of the stage is set up with jumbotrons and up the middle, waterfalling from the bottom of the stage and wrapping up the back and across the top is another screen showing colored patterns and also streaming the band members for everyone in the back of the stadium to see.
While taking all this in, A familiar song plays. John Frusciante is playing and singing “I Remember You” by the Ramones, While wearing a Ramones t-shirt. The night is far from over, with many more songs to go such as, Soul to Squeeze, Me and My Friends, Throw Away Your Television, Tell Me Baby, The Heavy Wing, Unlimited Love release Black Summer and starting with John Frusciante doing a solo with Flea backing him on bass, self titled “Californication” named by Rolling Stone as their most famous hit. Next is their number four on Rolling Stones list, “Give It Away” rings out and the audience is right there with Anthony word for word. The Chili Peppers exit the stage and the screams become overwhelming. Flea then returns to the stage walking on his hands. For the encore “By the Way” was a great sing along for everyone and was the perfect song for ending a successful evening.
“Under the Bridge” was on the setlist for the encore and was removed because of the weather delay.
PHOTO GALLERY
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