Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Post Malone
Marvel Stadium
7 Feb 2023

“My name is Austin Richard Post, and I came to play some shitty songs and get a bit fucked up while we do it…let’s party!” Shouts American rapper Post Malone. He lights up a cigarette as he kicks off with Wow, followed by I Like You (A Happier Song) and Better Now at the top of the set.

Malone’s stage presence and energy is undeniable. He dances around the stage without a care in the world and runs laps from side to side to connect with fans. The audience calls out for him to do a shoey and throws a sneaker up on stage to use and he happily accepts this rite of passage. “I love Australia so much. Here’s to Posty, he’s true blue,” he sings as he holds up the shoe and chugs down a beer leaking out the sides to leave it dripping down his beard.

He continues with a couple of oldies but goodies including Psycho, Candy Paint and Goodbyes. Malone throws everything he’s got into the show as he gets down on his knees and pours his heart out with every breath of his signature husky vibrato vocals into the microphone during I Fall Apart. He then brings a fan on stage to play guitar for Stay while Malone sings alongside clutching his cigarette and microphone in one hand.

The set elevates even further for the tail-end beginning with a song he made with Ozzy Osbourne (Take What You Want) as a row of flames ignite the stage and explosive fireballs shoot up into the air behind him as he unleashes some hardcore screaming vocals. For his biggest hit Rockstar, he absolutely demolishes a guitar into pieces for a full rockstar moment.

Malone dedicates Congratulations to his fans and delivers an inspirational message for anyone out there wanting to pursue their dreams. “Be yourself, keeping kicking ass and spreading love. Live your life, your dreams and your truth,” he shouts. Fireworks launch from the stage before his final song of the set, which is also the first song he ever wrote called White Iverson.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers get started with a huge instrumental jam to introduce themselves to the stage before lead singer Anthony Kiedis comes running in and joins them for Can’t Stop. They immediately get our hearts racing with excitement and run around the stage dancing like wild animals.

Psychedelic visuals swirl around in kaleidoscopic colours as they roll through their hits at a quick pace and keep us guessing what’s coming next. Their setlist has been a hot topic of discussion on this tour, given they are touring their most recent albums released in 2022, Unlimited Love and Return Of The Dream Canteen but fans are also hoping to hear most of their greatest hits. It’s a difficult balance to find and whilst there’s a good mix of new and old, it’s unfortunate they can’t fit everything in and please everyone.

As they roll through their set it’s apparent not all their song choices are their most popular and fall a bit flat during moments, seeing a lot of the crowd taking more frequent food and drink breaks until they reach a better song. The set however has moments of redemption with hits like Snow (Hey Oh), Californication and Tell Me Baby featuring an impressive electric guitar solo to fire up the crowd.

It’s clear they are seasoned professionals when it comes to their performance, having been touring together for so many years they have such an incredible chemistry and innate ability to feed off each other’s energy and improvise instrumental jams to lead in and out of songs or between changeovers.

Bassist Flea randomly calls out funny one-liners like noting the street he grew up on and letting us all know that tomorrow is fish & chips day, in case we were interested. He states that their new song Fake As Fu@k gives him joy and always makes him feel good after they play it. Long-time guitarist John Frusciante who recently re-joined the band in 2019 jumps on vocals for a solo cover of Loggins Messina’s Danny’s Song to change things up a bit.

The final part of the set with a two- song encore including Under The Bridge dedicated to D.H. Peligro and Give It Away, gives fans something to hold on to as they bid farewell and leave us with a final message of love and peace.

Words by Michael Prebeg

Behind the Lens Lucas Packett