By Alex Kluft

2022 was a big year for The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They recently closed out the first weekend of Austin City Limits and will play again on the second weekend of Austin City Limits. RHCP gave their first major performance of the year at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and along with the release of Unlimited Love the band played an intimate show at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood, CA and at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of Amoeba. Fast forward to July 23rd the band started their massive stadium tour and were joined by Thundercat, Haim, The Strokes, St. Vincent, and Beck on select dates. On August 28th, RHCP was presented the Global Icon Award at the MTV VMA’s by the legendary comedy duo Cheech and Chong followed by a performance of “Black Summer” and “Can’t Stop”. They also won the award for Best Rock Videofor “Black Summer.” The U.S. tour ended on September 18th in Arlington, TX. Since then, they have played Dreamforce and Louder than Life. 

Each setlist changed throughout the tour. At ACL they started with “Can’t Stop,” the set was full of hits spanning over 30 years including “Dani California,” “Scar Tissue,” “Snow (Hey Oh)” and “Californication.” From Unlimited Love, they performed “Aquatic Mouth Dance,” “Black Summer” and “The Heavy Wing.” This performance included the live debut of the song “Eddie” which was written as a tribute to the great Eddie Van Halen. Frusciante got to take the mic for the Ramones “I Remember You,” which he performed solo. Flea performed his signature song “Pea” which is a rarity to see these days. After playing “Give it Away,” they did an encore of “By the Way.”

RHCP’s latest album is called Return of the Dream Canteen.