Review: In Charlotte, Red Hot Chili Peppers add plenty of spice to a familiar recipe

Looking back at what will be a 40-year career in 2023, it’s pretty safe to say that few would have predicted that the Red Hot Chili Peppers would be the last band standing.

Ten years after its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, they’re not only playing stadiums with the same lineup that turned gibberish lyrics into funk-rock art and famously turned heads by wearing nothing but strategically placed socks; they’re still making new music. In fact. it’s second album of 2022 — “Return of the Dream Canteen” — is set to be released in October.

Guitarist John Frusciante’s return after a 13-year absence — for the band’s first stadium tour and first post-Covid outing — made Thursday night’s show at Bank of America Stadium very much an event. Fans traveled from out of state, forked over piles of cash for seats, Airbnbs or hotel rooms, and T-shirts (at $50 a pop), and reunited with old friends.

Following sets by openers Thundercat and The Strokes, RHCP’s Frusciante, bassist Flea, and drummer Chad Smith took the stage for what was the first of many extended instrumental jams.

The Chili Peppers opened the show with the same song they’ve used to open four out of their last five shows in Charlotte: “Can’t Stop,” with singer Anthony Kiedis springing from the back wearing a mesh blue shirt and knee socks with lightning bolt emblazoned black shorts as the band launched into the playfully jerky intro.

Hits “Dani California” and “Scar Tissue” followed.

I was skeptical about the size of the venue, even leery of buying balcony seats (which my husband and 13-year-old ended up with after my editor got sick, my 12-year-old and I having been thereby upgraded to lower bowl). But video screens that wrapped the stage from ceiling to floor and seemed to spill over the front edge of it like a waterfall created a constant psychedelic tapestry of swirling lights, 3D imagery, and rolling waves, while band members were projected onto two massive screens that flanked both sides.

By the fourth song, “Here Ever After” — the first of four from its first 2022 album, “Unlimited Love” — Kiedis was characteristically shirtless. He mentioned an after-party at Pinky’s Westside Grill, which I thought was a joke because it normally closes by 11 p.m. (But sure enough, there was a long line outside the Morehead Street eatery after show.)

“Are you guys Tar Heels, or Blue Devils?” Flea asked before beginning “Snow (Hey Oh).”

He was met with an inaudible crash of cheers and boos. To further stir the pot, he muttered, “Chad and I invested in the Bobcats,” before trailing off. I could find no evidence of this online, but given their well-documented love of basketball (related: Flea played an L.A. Lakers-themed bass during the final song of the encore, “By the Way”) and the trend of celebrities investing in pro sports, it seems plausible.

The band’s stamina indicates its members aren’t just sitting around watching sports, though.

Flea and Kiedis will be 60 this fall. Smith 61. Yet all three of them are cut like 30-year-olds. Flea still punctuates his playing with spread-eagle jumps, and even walked across the stage on his hands on his way to the encore. At 52, Frusciante looks more like an aging skateboarder in baggy shorts and a T-shirt. His presence is more emotional than physical, more heart than head, as he subtly noodles against the backdrop of Flea and Smith’s funky clockwork rhythms.

When I saw RHCP at Coachella in 2007, Frusciante was its not-so-secret weapon. His flowery but not showy playing and counterpoint falsetto elevated the band’s funk-punk skeleton. Almost 15 years later, it’s Smith that stands out as its stealthy MVP, a utility worker who can play anything and barely stops to take a breath during the two-hour show — all while looking like Will Ferrell in a backward baseball hat and white coveralls.

There was a clear generational divide in the fan base. The college-aged kids in front of us shouted along to the new song, “These Are the Ways;” two songs later, the women beside us sat down during “Nobody Weird Like Me,” the only track RHCP played off of my favorite of their albums, 1989’s “Mother’s Milk.” Meanwhile, more recent fan favorite “Parallel Universe,” from 1999’s “Californication,” received one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night.

Most notably, its smash 1991 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” was only represented by the B-side “Soul to Squeeze” (which appeared in 1993’s “Coneheads” movie), “I Could Have Lied” (a cut so deep I’d nearly forgotten about it), and “Give It Away” (done as the last song before the encore). Conspicuously absent from the evening was the once-obligatory “Under the Bridge.”

The jam-band-esque instrumentals that have become the hallmarks of their shows were of course included. Some folks dig them — and it does give Kiedis a few minutes to rest his voice and provide amusing interpretive dance off to the side — but personally I would have traded the between-song jams for a few old favorites (“Knock Me Down,” anyone?).

As for the opening acts, they created an interesting mix.

Bass wunderkind Thundercat is a Grammy winner who has collaborated with the likes of hip-hop giants Kendrick Lamar and Mac Miller and played with everyone from Erykah Badu to Suicidal Tendencies to Snoop Dogg. But he’s still less familiar to a mainstream audience. And on Thursday night, with just bass, drums and keys, he and his band spun a wild web of psychedelic free jazz. It’s probably the first time the words “free jazz” have even been uttered inside the stadium. He did, however, end his set with the more-traditional R&B hits “Funny Thing” and “Them Changes.”

The Strokes followed, performing a set that marked just their second time playing Charlotte — and first since headlining the Grady Cole Center on the campus of Central Piedmont Community College in 2004. Singer Julian Casablancas marveled at Charlotte’s neon skyline and generally “good vibe,” spouting endearingly awkward, off-the-cuff banter. The Strokes aren’t the most flashy performers, but the finale of “Reptilia” rivaled the headliner’s set, drawing a “That Was Awesome!” text from my husband in the balcony.

Like RHCP, The Strokes left out their biggest hit, “Last Nite.”

Considering how overplayed both it and “Under the Bridge” once were, I was fine with the omissions.

This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 1:33 PM.