News 911208-1
The Austin Coliseum, an old airplane hanger, came alive last night as the Red Hot Chili Peppers burned the stage alive with songs from their new album, “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.” “Suck My Kiss,” “I Could Have Lied,” and “Give it Away,” are all a part of the new sound, and they kick major ass, exciting the crowd into an uncontrollable frenzy of blood and sweat on the cold December night. The pit was inescapable and similar to a caged death match.
The real excitement from the crowd came from the Mother’s Milk offerings, which included “Magic Johnson,” the ode to the Los Angeles Lakers, “Knock Me Down,” a song about heroin addiction, and “Stone Cold Bush,” which has a rap/rock feeling that is not comparable to anything else in pop music today. Taking production and writing cues from the grandfather of interplanetary funk, George Clinton, the Red Hot Chili Peppers craft excellent songs and play them with ease. A young kid, John Frusciante, played guitar for them and did an astounding job for only being seventeen years old. Flea masters the bass slap better than anyone else in the business. And Anthony Kiedis, the singer, maintains enough energy to keep the entire room moshing like mongoose in a viper pit.
They also went back to Uplift Mofo Party Plan, their previous full-length album, to play the Dylan classic “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Me and My Friends,” and “Fight like a Brave.” True to form, they played in their underwear the second half of the show.
The youthfully exuberant crowd appeared to be staying out late for a school night, really grooved to one of the opening bands on the bill, the Smashing Pumpkins. These four freaks from Chicago played mainly from their debut disc, “Gish.” The guitars were screeching and piercing our ears for an hour, while the singer Billy Corgain sang some melodic tunes over the din. “I am One,” “Siva,” and “Bury Me” were outstanding songs that kept the crowd spinning through moshful bliss. The crowd appeared to enjoy the psychadelic/art rock, however, it was a bit too experimental for 1991. The lead singer showed off on the guitar quite a bit, pretending to be the rock star that he is not yet, nor by the sound of his painful solos ever will be.
Beginning the festivities for a budget priced show, triple bill for less than twenty dollars general admission, was a new band from Seattle called Pearl Jam. The five members of the new band played for a little longer than thirty minutes, but captured the attention of the already full auditorium. The singer, Eddie Vedder, rivaled Kiedis’ energy level, climbing on a riser and then crawling across one of the tresses, fifty feet above the crowd. Meanwhile, the band continued to keep the beat of “Evenflow,” one of the band’s first singles. Vedder released himself and floated back to the stage on a steel cable. “Alive” was another hit song in the making. Generally, having never seen or heard Pearl Jam before last night, I must say they were the best surprise of the night, playing a solid rock set that was humming, easily-recognizable, and well put together.
These three bands will never play together again. The capacity crowd got a rare opportunity to see one of the greatest rock shows ever put together, three bands all coming into their own at a very important time in rock history at the beginning of the 1990s when pop is on the way out and a new thing called “grunge” is on the way in with the help of bands like Soundgarden, Primus, and Nirvana.