Wolfgang Gartner – Ménage à Trois

Rounded out by guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante, as well as a percussionist and keyboardist, RHCP performed five songs from their long-awaited, Rick Rubin-produced tenth album I’m With You (due out August 30), interspersed with a handful of crowd-pleasing classics.

“We got new songs, we got old songs in the deadhead redwoods out here,” said Anthony Kiedis cooly, wearing a tuxedo jacket and an OFF! trucker cap. A towering pine behind him was lit by a pink strobe. The air smelled green and felt damp. It was a surreal space for the band’s iconic funk-punk.

But Flea apparently lives nearby and visits the library frequently. According to the show’s presenter, coastal promoter Britt Govea of (((folkYEAH!))), the bassist called him personally to set up the gig about a month ago. The venue’s executive director Magnus Toren said RHCP paid for the entire thing.

A shirtless, blue-haired Flea joked at the beginning of the set: “Anybody who knows where I live, now’s a good time to rob me. Because, you know, I’m here.”

They opened with one of the Afro-funk-influenced new ones, “Monarchy of Roses,” a darkly burbling high-energy pop song spurred forth by a barrage of percussion. The audience embraced the unfamiliar song without any prodding.

The same was true for the fittingly titled “Ethiopia,” which was inspired by a trip Flea and Klinghoffer recently took to Africa at the behest of Gorillaz mastermind Damon Albarn. Congas and scatted vocals prevailed over a jittery groove reminiscent of Talking Heads.

“Look Around” too seemed to be made of a dozen slight interlocking parts, suggesting a more subtle musicality than heard on RHCP’s last album, 2006′s Stadium Arcadium (from which they played the slap-happy “Charlie”).

As befit the mood, and Klinghoffer’s artful, melodic guitar style, the band favored songs from 2002′s By the Way, swaying through the epic-yet-subdued “Universally Speaking,” vamping (aurally, of course) for the slow and sexy “Don’t Forget Me,” and quietly building to a furious funk crush with the album’s titular single.

The coziness was the real draw — at one point, the guys took turns playing parts of the new single “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” to Flea’s 6-year-old daughter, Sunny Bebop Balzary, as she danced on the edge of the stage — but the Chili Peppers saved a little spice and hellfire for their encore, when they surprised all by launching into “Give it Away.”

The sylvan wonderland seemed an odd place for slam-dancing, but a devoted few gave it their all from the grass in front of the band, while the rest rocked, rapped, and thrashed along a bit more quietly. But by 11 p.m., the forest seemed to have swallowed every sound as the lights faded and the crowd trickled out to Highway 1.

Setlist:
Monarchy of Roses
Charlie
Ethiopia
Universally Speaking
Look Around
Californication
Factory of Faith
Throw Away Your Television
Parallel Universe
The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
By the Way

Don’t Forget Me
Give it Away

Dear Jay-Z and Kanye West,

Independent record stores serve our communities. Our passion is music, and
we convey this to the millions of customers who come to our stores. That’s
what we do.

Four years ago independent music stores across the country banded together
to create Record Store Day. Our goal was to counter the negative media
coverage about the supposed demise of record stores brought on by the
closing of the Tower stores and to respond to the music business practices
that fans deemed to be manipulative and onerous.

We reached out to the artist community to see if they would join us, and the
response was overwhelming with words of support coming in from Paul
McCartney, Erykah Badu, Tom Waits, Chuck D, the Foo Fighters and countless
others. Working with their label partners, many of these musicians created
limited edition works of art, including vinyl and CDs made especially for
music specialty retail. Hundreds of these artists took the opportunity to
perform, DJ, and interact with their fans in our record stores. Here in the
US, Record Store Day lifted the entire music business by 8% and contributed
to the growth in music sales. Record Store Day is now one of the biggest
music events in history with millions of people participating worldwide. We
also continue to work throughout the year with labels, artists and managers
and run regular promotions via physical independent retail and
recordstoreday.com.

We are responding to the bad news that your new album will not be available
to independent record stores until after iTunes gets a window of
exclusivity. We also learned that the deluxe version (which is what the true
music fans who shop our stores will want by an overwhelming majority) will
only be available at Best Buy exclusively for a period of time. We believe
this is a short-sighted strategy, and that your decisions will be doing
great damage to over 1,700 independent record stores — stores that have
supported you and your music for years.

We know that you are busy, and that you put most of your energies into
creating great music, but we are writing to you in the hope that you will
hear us and take the time to rectify this matter. As representatives of the
independent record store music community, we are asking you to allow record
stores and music fans equal access to your new album.

With the utmost respect,

Dedry Jones, The Music Experience
Mike Dreese, Newbury Comics
Judy Negley, Independent Records
Mike Batt, Silver Platters
Tobago Benito, DBS Sounds
Brian Faber, Zia Records
Karen Pearson, Amoeba Music
Bryan Burkert, The Sound Garden
Mike Wise, Monster
Rob Roth, Vintage Vinyl
Joe Nardone, Jr., Gallery of Sound
Jonathan Fernandez, Rasputin Music
Dilyn Radakovitz, Dimple Records
Dustin Hansen, Graywhale Entertainment
Bill Kennedy, BK Music
Jim Bland, Plan Nine
Steve Wilson, Kiefs
Tom King, Central Square Records
Alayna Hill Alderman, Richard Storms, Record Archive
Karl Groeger, Looney Tunes
Paul Epstein, Twist and Shout
Nancy Salzer, Salzer’s Records
Rick Ziegler, Indy CD
Laura, Finders Records
Deon Borchard, Nic Fritze, The Long Ear
Chuck Oken, Rhino /Mad Platter
Allan Miller, John Bevis, Disc Exchange
Charlotte Kubat, Magnolia Thunderpussy
John Kunz, Waterloo Records
Chris Avino, Rainbow Records
Mike Fratt, Homers
Rich Koch, Off the Record
Skip Hermans, Skip’s Record and CD World
Jason Patton, Oz Music
Quinn Bishop, Cactus Records
John Timmons, ear X tacy
Lou Russell, Lou’s Records
Roger Weiss, Streetlight Records
Terry Currier, Music Millenium
Andrew Chinnici, Lakeshore Record Exchange
Michael Bunnell, The Record Exchange
Mike White, Boo Boo Records
Steve Baron, CD Central
Eric Levin, Criminal Records
Pat O’connor, Culture Clash
Dan Plunkett, End Of An Ear
Paula Kret, Exile On Main St
Chris Penn, Good Records
Doyle Davis, Grimey’s
Travis Searle, Guestroom Records
Jim Mcguinn, Hot Poop
Isaac Slusarenko, Jackpot Records
Jason Nickey & Heath Byers, Landlocked Music
Todd Robinson, Luna Music
Darren & Jim Blase, Shake It
Anna & Chris Brozek, Slowtrain
Kimber Lanning, Stinkweeds
Tom “Papa” Ray, Vintage Vinyl