Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea: “A Record Store is a Sacred Place”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers played Hollywood’s Amoeba Records in an LA love-fest..

By Paul Marszalek
TheTop22.com

An in-store, at last.

John Frusciante returned.

All was well in the world — at least for a moment Thursday — as the Red Hot Chili Peppers christened the stage at Amoeba Records Hollywood.

It was the first in-store performance for Amoeba in more than two years, and the first at Amoeba’s new Hollywood Boulevard location. Bassist Flea, citing the posters on the walls – David Bowie, Johnny Cash — and the assembled fans, remarked, “A record store is a sacred place.”

The band, which earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just a day earlier, is in full promotion mode for their new set Unlimited Love.

The four song set, with returning guitarist John Frusciante packing only a single acoustic guitar, featured current #1 “Black Summer,” “By the Way,” “These Are the Ways,” and a cover of Black Flag’s “Nervous Breakdown.”

When introducing the final song, Anthony Kiedis, spoke about how he and Flea once lived a few blocks away “in a house without a front door,” where they were inspired by Los Angeles punk icons Black Flag and others.

In all, it was an LA love-fest, with the hundreds in attendance having patiently waited for hours in a line that wrapped around the block for the noon-time release party.

There were even Red Hot Chili Peppers-themed donuts from Los Angeles mainstay Randy’s Donuts, which caused more than one fan to consider the dilemma: Eat it, or somehow try to preserve it as an ultra-rare tchotchke?

Kudos to Warner Product Manager Peter Standish for ensuring fans didn’t go hungry.