Standing In Line to See the Show Tonight

Two pints in the left one!

My heels are on fire. They’re pink, sore, and blistered. My eyes are bloodshot and drooping, my hair’s got a life of its own, I’m hungry and tired, I may have caught pneumonia, and my body feels like I’ve just endured Arnie Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Olympia training routine.

BUT, all of that was worth it.

I got home, and wrote that little paragraph on Monday about seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers live. Despite being completely drenched by torrential rain on the walk in, sitting in soaked jeans and grinning through cold shivers for three hours, our moods were brighter than the spotlights. So what if I kicked a pint of Strongbow all over my bag, or nearly bludgeoned bystanders by dancing; we had an incredible day filled with laughter and excitement.

There were a few surprises in the setlist which deserve an honourable mention:

I Like Dirt – I’m not sure if this track is played live often, but for me it was a shock considering this was a big show, and the majority of the audience seemed to have gathered for the hits (boring people, I otherwise like to call them). We air-jammed and jumped around for the entire song… Much like the Chili’s themselves!

 

If You Have To Ask – Again, another old favourite! Blood Sugar Sex Magik helped introduce me to the band’s funk genius, and it kills me that a lot of the album tracks aren’t played live. The super fans in the crowd went crazy for it.

Soul To Squeeze – It’s hard to find decent live videos of this song online, let alone be lucky enough to actually experience it being played to you. This song holds so many memories for me that I STILL can’t believe the coincidence! It’s “our song”, and us being there together made it even more special.

Overall, the entire experience was magical. Kind of wish somebody had told me how difficult it was to get a Goddamn taxi in Sunderland beforehand but y’know, I was that tired, tipsy and high on adrenaline that I can’t even remember it properly. We got free drinks out of finding one in the end so that’s all that matters!