Red Hot Chili Peppers – Gigography
Live in Indjija
I was expecting to see them every minute now. We all were. People started screaming, calling and yelling, some even sang Under the Bridge! The overall chaos made me feel even more nervous and even more impatient.
- What are they waiting for… lemonade? Everything seems to be set up and ready! This is driving me crazy!
My roommate just shrugged but I couldn’t stand the uncertainty anymore. I knew I was going to see them but I wanted that moment now, I deserved to have it right now, because I was waiting for it since the day I’ve heard them playing for the first time, and since Mart when I bought the tickets, and all day long here under the extreme weather conditions. It was almost like they’ve been testing our patience and I must admit I began losing it faster than ever before. My roommate tried calling my attention to all the cameras, lights and three big display screens they set up. It did look magnificent but I couldn’t care less about it now. I desperately wanted to see what I came here for and the same thing could be said for the rest 10 000 people on this muddy field.
And then… They appeared. Chad, Flea and John appeared on the stage and I almost gone deaf from all the screaming around me. I screamed as well, I couldn’t help it, they looked fabulous. Their appearance was fallowed by the most amazing intro I’ve ever heard. John was giving his best going crazy and jumping around and it was like that guitar grew right there, in his arms, like he was born with it, Flea totally tore up the bass, as mad as always, and Chad gave us the best rhythm energetically playing the drums with a big smile on his face… And I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to be there, to witness this fascinating performance, to hear them play for me. After some good five minutes of this great instrumental intro they slowly passed on to playing Can’t Stop, and that’s when the crowd went really crazy, we all started jumping around, screaming, and then… He appeared. Anthony ran into the stage, wearing a sweet white poncho with the hood that’s been covering his face and he just kept running around, his poncho flying after him, as the rest of the band played these famous notes.
And then BOOM! Chad raised his sticks in the air, John and Flea jumping around like crazy and Anthony took the microphone in his hands, taking off his hood, lights from all sides almost blinded me, and it began!: “Cant’ stop addicted to the shin dig…” We all started jumping like crazy, following the rhythm, singing as loud as we could, and I must admit that I could hardly hear Anth’s voice from the arising hysteria and it was only to become wilder as the show went on. After Can’t stop there were some more good songs: Dani California, which I just adore and the band seemed to be really up for it, then Scar Tissue, Charlie… even John and Flea played their own songs! Still, right after the first one I could feel something wasn’t quite right. Anthony wasn’t jumping around like he usually do, either he was not in the mood or he was not feeling well or… there was another reason I couldn’t think of. I tried to ignore that and just enjoy because it was a great performance nevertheless, but I couldn’t help analyzing what went wrong. He even left the stage a couple of times and that really scared me, I was almost sure he was feeling ill or something like that.
Anyway, the rest of the band was giving their best, especially Flea. He was jumping around, filled up with that wild, unique energy of his own, and the ending notes of ‘Don’t Forget Me’ have been really unforgettable and his playing involuntarily filled my eyes with tears. Yes, he was that good. The atmosphere in the crowd was so uplifting, even too uplifting at times, as one girl near me couldn’t help screaming as loud as she could after every single song. People were in the good mood, and that was more than obvious. Singing made my mouth dry pretty fast and even though we had no more water there were nice people around us that unselfishly sheared theirs. After ‘By The Way’, where I expected to see some crazy jumping – Anthony almost gave us none, they left the stage. I couldn’t believe it was already over – there were many more songs I desperately wanted to hear. Time couldn’t have flied that fast I was thinking to myself while checking my clock. A quick glance at it really shocked me:
-What?! – I screamed – They’ve been playing only one hour! This can’t be! They were supposed to be playing two hours, wasn’t that what they told us?
My roommate was just standing there, looking around, with the cell phone in her hands – she was sweet enough to record the majority of the show and I’ve yet got to thank her for capturing some of the most beautiful moments on tape. People seemed to be really disappointed, we have all been expecting more. After a few seconds of initial shock, crowd went crazy shouting ‘we want more’ and applauding with their hands above their heads. Oh, were we loud! We just wanted them back and that was exactly what we got: after a few moments they showed up and their reappearance was followed by a noisy applause and some more screaming. Their best live song ‘Give It Away’ got me in the good mood even though I knew we wouldn’t hear a full length concert I dreamed of. Even before the song was completely over, Anthony said good bye and left the stage leaving Flea and John, to jump to its ending, by themselves. We didn’t get the ending jam either; they just waved and left…
My first impression was utter disappointment but that was only because I expected too much even though I knew we shall expect nothing out of anything because that’s the only way one can’t get disappointed. But, in this case, that just wasn’t possible as I had too much time to think about it, to make it all come to life in my head, over and over and over again. Still, it didn’t take me long to realize how happy I should be because I saw them and heard them playing live, for me, in my little country that almost no one knew anything about or knew only about its bad reputation. As the thousands of emotions ran through me ‘in the moment of the meantime’, one of them stayed longer than the others and was certainly more intense: it was a true warmth and happiness. The same, however, couldn’t be said for the rest of the people who came to Indjija to see a full length concert and a spectacular show with crazy jumping and feel the wild energy, one and only that could be produced by Red Hots and no one else. People looked at the stage in disbelief screaming ‘we want more’ and applauding even harder than the last time, but it became clear that they would not appear again. We all knew that, but some of them still couldn’t accept the painful truth. The loud applause, whistling, calling, and singing lasted for about 5 minutes when the stuff turned on all the lights and started packing the equipment and their instruments. At that moment, everybody knew for sure, the band would not be coming back. Not here, not on this stage, not ever again.
The crowd booed loudly and the most disappointed ones threw bottles at the stage and at the people that were there… How hasty and insolent! Nothing they could have done would justify such a behavior! Plus, it was all too clear that acting like that wouldn’t change anything, they wouldn’t be coming back. But, yeah, our nation is known to be dying to show its protest in public, to show to the whole world that it can’t be treated that way, like its opinion is important to anyone in any way… Be that as it may, the concert has officially ended, once and for all.
