It was their first live performance since they appeared at the closing ceremony of the Olympics in August 2024. “Los Angeles is our home,” Flea told the crowd. “We fuckin’ love you”
Shortly after Nirvana’s surprise reunion at FireAid, the Red Hot Chili Peppers came together for the first time since the 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony. They opened up with “Dani California,” and then launched into “Californication” and “Black Summer” before wrapping up with a singalong rendition of “Under The Bridge.”
“Love you so much Los Angeles,” Flea told the crowd, wearing nothing more than a pair of purple underpants. “Los Angeles is our home. We fuckin’ love you.”
The Chili Peppers are a quintessential L.A. band whose roots go all the way back to the hallways of Fairfax High School in 1982. Their 1991 classic “Under The Bridge” is a tribute to Los Angeles. It was written when lead singer Anthony Kiedis was struggling with the aftermath of a severe drug addiction.
“The only thing I could grasp was this city,” Kiedis told Rolling Stone in 1992. “I grew up here for the last twenty years, and it was L.A. — the hills, the buildings, the people in it as a whole — that seemed to be looking out for me more than any human being. I just started singing this little song to myself: ‘Sometimes I feel/Like I don’t have a partner….’”
The “Under The Bridge” lineup of the Chili Peppers reunited in 2019 when guitarist John Frusciante returned to the band following a 10-year hiatus. During that time, they have toured the world together and cut two albums, 2022’s Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen. They’re on a break right now, but they reconvened for FireAid.