Waiting for the drop

I love this video of The Red Hot Chili Peppers doing Can't Stop live back in 2016 (sorry I can't embed it here, you have to follow the link to watch it at YouTube).

The gist is they noodle for several minutes before launching into the song and even though I think the audience reaction is slightly juiced in the audio, it reminds me of these moments at concerts and how magical they are to experience yourself.

At the first Lollapalooza tour in the early 1990s, one of the headliners was The Beastie Boys, during a time when they'd just released Check Your Head. That was the first album where they grabbed instruments and started playing a sort of punk + rock + funk and crafted a new sound for their album and their career beyond.

I remember loving a couple instrumental tracks on the CD and during this concert tour, at one point between songs, they started noodling on instruments for what honestly seemed like twenty minutes of various solos and it was chill and great but when they finally altogether veered into the familiar first notes of one of their new album's instrumental tracks, the whole crowd (myself included) absolutely lost their goddamned minds.

I still remember it vividly 30 years later.

I probably watch this RHCP clip once a month, from beginning to end, because even though I know what is coming, it's still great to hear a bunch of messy noodling turn into a cacophony and then strike a familiar chord as they launch into one of their best jams.