What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Red Hot Chili Peppers...

 It's official. I've just seen the best show I've ever plunked dough down to witness. The Red Hot Chili Peppers destroyed Joe Louis Arena from the opening song, "Monarchy of Roses, to the very end when Chad Smith introduced Nik Lidstrom to the 20,000 plus crowd and the roof nearly blew off of Joe Louis Arena. It was incredible. The baby's first in-uteran concert, and it was a perspective bender.

 

You forget that the Chili Peppers have been going strong since 1983, and I've never been a show where literally every song was a hit...song, after song, after song...It was the loudest I've ever heard any crowd...any crowd...they sang every word, and Anthony, Flea, Josh and Chad didn't mess around, with very little yapping between songs, just hair parter after hair parter. At one point Flea thanked the Detroit Red Wings for letting them use they're building, and Chad Smith poured out a pretty heart warming thank you to Detroit, mentioning how proud he is to be from Detroit, and how he'd grown up watching countless hockey games in that same barn...how he'd seen his first concert there...Rush in 1980..."air drumming with Neil Peart the whole time." The impromptu tribute made 20,000 people blush with rare pride for a city that just seems to keep getting kicked when it's already down.

The band ripped through song after song...but the one that tore the place to shreds was a bombproof version of "Under the Bridge." Afterward it struck me that I may have just lived a bit of a musical dream. I never thought that I'd ever hear Under The Bridge," live.

Now it's bedtime and then we'll wake and pick up Zoey and Bachaan in the morning. We're off to see Dave Matthews in Toronto. Certainly a weekend that makes up for the last crippling month we've endured. Wow...I'm still kinda floored. I just saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I just saw Nik Lidstrom's final thank-you and goodbye to the Motor City...I just saw a band I'd been waiting to see since high school.  Am I really supposed to sleep now?