The 10 best Red Hot Chili Peppers live moments

A top ten is an opinion, and this one belongs to the editors of De Peppers. We picked moments that are documented beyond a blurry phone clip. Every fact below we checked in at least two sources.

1Slane Castle, Ireland (23 August 2003)

80,000 people stood in the grounds of Slane Castle, and the tickets sold out in under two and a half hours. The band was in the middle of the By the Way tour. The DVD Live at Slane Castle came out in November 2003. If you watch one concert film of this band, start here.

2Hyde Park, London (19, 20 and 25 June 2004)

Three nights, 258,000 paying fans. Billboard logged a gross of over 17 million dollars, at the time the highest ever for a single venue. The live album Live in Hyde Park went to number 1 in the UK.

3Pinkpop, Landgraaf (23 May 1988)

Our own country makes the list. Kiedis, Flea, guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons played the first Pinkpop held in Landgraaf. It was one of Slovak's last shows: he died on 25 June 1988.

4Woodstock '94, Saugerties (14 August 1994)

The band walked on in giant lightbulb costumes. It was their first big show with guitarist Dave Navarro. For the encore they dressed like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969.

5John Frusciante's return (8 February 2020)

A Tony Hawk Foundation benefit, three songs, with Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction on drums. It was Frusciante's first show with the band in more than twelve years. They played The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog, Gang of Four's Not Great Men and Give It Away.

6The Grammys in Los Angeles (24 February 1993)

The band played Give It Away with George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars. That same night the song won them their first Grammy, for Best Hard Rock Performance With Vocal. Clinton had produced their second album, Freaky Styley, in 1985.

7Saturday Night Live, New York (22 February 1992)

Under the Bridge on American network television. Frusciante opened with an intro Kiedis did not recognise. In his memoir Scar Tissue, Kiedis wrote that he suspected sabotage; Frusciante says he was experimenting. In May 1992 Frusciante quit the band in the middle of the Japanese tour.

8Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland (14 April 2012)

Chris Rock gave the induction speech. Former drummers Jack Irons and Cliff Martinez were inducted too. They closed with Higher Ground, joined by Slash, Billie Joe Armstrong, George Clinton and Ronnie Wood among others.

9Goffertpark, Nijmegen (10 June 2022)

The park sold out, with more than 60,000 people. It was the first Dutch show since Frusciante's return. Dutch music magazine OOR summed the night up as "possessed but unfinished". With this band, those two go together.

10Super Bowl XLVIII, East Rutherford (2 February 2014)

The least live moment on this list, which is why it is here. The band played Give It Away with Bruno Mars to 115 million viewers, with unplugged instruments. The NFL required pre-recorded music; only the vocals were live. Two days later Flea wrote an open letter.

Just missed the cut

We left out Woodstock '99, where the band played Hendrix's Fire while fires burned across the site. It is a famous moment, not a good one. The 2024 Olympic closing ceremony, with Can't Stop from Long Beach, came close.

Conclusion

The band's best nights have one thing in common. Chad Smith put it this way: the songs are different every night. How they do it, Frusciante, Chad Smith and Flea explain themselves in from the archive: how the Red Hot Chili Peppers jam on stage. And have your say: which song should De Peppers open with on 12 December?

De Peppers editorial team

Written by the editors at De Peppers, the Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band from Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands. Every fact is sourced at the bottom of the piece. Spotted a mistake? Email info@mia-automation.com and we will check it.

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