These four guys know how to drive an audience crazy! For an hour and 45 minutes on Thursday night, the 50,000 people who filled the Arena do Grêmio couldn’t contain their ecstasy with Red Hot Chili Peppers. With an eightminute introductory instrumental song, the band began to demonstrate the virtuosity of each member: Flea on bass, John Frusciante on guitar and Chad Smith on drums, still without Anthony Kieds’ light and soporific voice. The show started at 9:05 p.m. By the second song, fans felt like they couldn’t stop because it was “Can’t Stop” with those guitar and bass riffs that rock a rock themselves. Then came songs like “Scar Tissue” and “Snow (Hey Oh),” and the audience sang their hearts out and did a lot of jumping.
But in the next song, Flea and Frusciante once again engage in a sonic duel that leaves its mark on the more or less sensitive eardrums. And the dance followed with an uncontrollable delirium from the audience and a thank you in Portuguese to the Kieds masses. The first ten songs continued to alternate classics with some lesserknown ones, but the audience always sang along, as in the case of “Soul to Squeeze”; “Dani California” and “Here Ever After.”
In the final part of the setlist, the rocking “Tell me Baby” and “Tippa my Tongue” thrilled the audience. And then, after a duel between Flea’s bass and Frusciante’s guitar, the sonic wonder “Californication” sounds, with some octave variations and a longer feel, followed by a more bluesy ballad and “Black Summer”.
In the seventeenth song of the evening, Flea’s accomplice bass calls out “By The Way” and puts his funk rock groove in the foreground. Needless to say, the 50,000 voices and bodies moved everything they could. Recognizing the audience’s excitement, Kieds repeated “Thank you” three times so the band went to the dressing room and the audience screamed wildly for the encore.
After 2 minutes the last songs. When they returned to the dressing rooms, they first played the slow and sensual “Sir. Psycho Sexy” to create a funky and soulful atmosphere. Kieds thanked the spectacular Brazilian audience for their enthusiasm and began with “Give it Away”, the last classic of the evening, where the audience fell into a mixture of emotions, jumps and voices in the chorus of “Give it Away Now”. Kieds thanks him and says he loves everyone and Chad throws the drumsticks into the audience after 1 hour and 45 minutes of the show.