Red Hot Chili Peppers make Comerica Park show a family affair

Sunday night's Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at Comerica Park ended on an emotional note, with Bloomfield Hills-raised Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith thanking the audience and bringing his 95-year-old "all time f---ing rocker" mother, Joan Smith, out in front of the crowd. 

With the stadium's houselights up and his bandmates already offstage, Smith ran to the side area and brought his mother, who uses a wheelchair and was clutching one of her son's drumsticks across her chest, out to the center of the stage. She waved to the fans who roared and cheered back, a fitting close for the biggest concert Smith and his Chili Peppers cohorts have ever played in the Motor City, in front of 34,000 fans at the Detroit Tigers' home.

Smith's mom was not the only Red Hot Chili mama at the show; Margaret "Peggy" Nobel, the mother of Grand Rapids-born singer Anthony Kiedis, was also watching from side stage. It's an underappreciated facet of one of the most California-synonymous bands of all-time that half its roster hails from the Mitten State, and the homecoming love was in the air all night long: "Thank you Michigan!" bassist Flea said early in the evening. "Thank you for Chad and Anthony!" 

Smith had even more to say at the show's close. "It means the world to a little kid growing up not too far from here to come play this amazing stadium. It's unbelievable," he said, pointing out the Olde English D tattoo on his arm. "It's a dream come true, it really is." 

The Detroit appreciation even extended to Sparky Anderson, who got a shout-out at the show, as Flea dedicated "Stadium Arcadium's" "Tell Me Baby" to the late Detroit Tigers skipper. Flea also waxed about recording 1985's "Freaky Styley" in Detroit with producer George Clinton, while Kiedis mentioned the band's first Detroit concert at the no-longer-standing Latin Quarter.

Those local hugs were sprinkled throughout the nearly two-hour performance, a loose and imperfect show, those imperfections the result of live musicians playing live music. There were no tracks underneath the band and no nets to fall back on, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers powered through a 17-song set that highlighted the core dynamic of the group, and the connection that bonds Kiedis, Flea, Smith and guitarist John Frusciante.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have always been a love story, and that love story flows between those four musicians. Others have come and gone, but the Chili Peppers are at their strongest when Frusciante is in the mix, and his re-joining the group in 2019 after a 10-year absence — this is his third stint as a Chili Pepper — is the creative launchpad that allowed them to tour stadiums this time around, ostensibly backing this year's "Unlimited Love" album but really celebrating the return of the group to its most successful (and soulful) incarnation.   

The band kicked off Sunday with a roaring five-minute jam that acted as a ramp-up to high-octane opener "Around the World." That spun into "Dani California" and the soaring "Universally Speaking," all songs from the high water mark of Frusciante's second tenure with the group. 

Kiedis, who somehow turns 60 later this year, darted around the stage in a blue mesh T-shirt, black shorts with a lightning streak across them and blue Nike socks pulled up to his calves. He's currently sporting a Tom Selleck mustache and a haircut like Moe's from the Three Stooges, which he manages to pull off with the help of his perennial California surfer bod and a performance energy that never flags.  

Kiedis pulled his shirt up over his face like an overexcited child — good thing for all those holes in it — while Flea, who took the stage shirtless, in a long skirt and with Los Angeles Lakers socks on, jumped high in the air, spun in circles and spoke several languages through his bass guitar.

The foursome, augmented by an auxiliary musician positioned at the back of the stage, often gathered around Smith's drums, playing facing one other, rather than out toward the crowd. The Chili Peppers sound is and has always been about vibes, and the music they create together is born out of those moments where they find a groove, build it up and ride it until it crashes into the shore. 

They were surrounded by a magnificent production that included a massive video screen that spilled off the stage in front and rose high above and over them, which made it look like they were performing inside of a lava lamp. The screens captured live images that were filtered into negatives and run through what looked like heat vision, so the color schemes enveloping the stage — vivid oranges, blues, reds, pinks — were as funky as the band's music. 

About that music: it was at times hard and fast, at times melodic and lovely. And it sometimes derailed, as when Frusciante had to trade out guitars at the beginning of "Californication" and the band covered by extending the intro until he was ready. The version that followed was slowed down a quarter step, one of several songs that was played at a slightly adjusted tempo, as the group slipped slightly off its mark during the second half of the show. 

The setlist, which included four songs off of "Unlimited Love" and dipped back as far as 1989's "Mother's Milk" for "Nobody Weird Like Me," was augmented by several improvisational jams that picked up in the spaces between songs. "Under the Bridge" and "By the Way" closed out the night, as Kiedis listed off a list of Michigan cities he wanted to thank and Flea made a heart symbol to the crowd with his hands. 

The evening was opened by a smooth, fun 30-minute set from Thundercat, the Los Angeles Grammy winner and maniac bassist who also had local ties to crow about: "You know my whole family's from here," said 'Cat, son of former session drummer Ronald Bruner Sr., who played with the Temptations, Diana Ross and more. 

New York City rockers the Strokes, playing their first Detroit concert since 2006, warmed up the early arrivers with a sturdy 11-song set that bounced around the group's 21-year history, including hard-chargers "Reptilia" and "Juicebox" and slightly deeper favorites "Ize of the World" and "Evening Sun."

Frontman Julian Casablancas, as charismatically aloof as ever, at one point segued into a discussion of the similarities between the "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones" and "Superman" themes, after trying to lay the tune of the band's "Life is Simple in the Moonlight" over the close of "The Adults are Talking" but coming up short. A closing three-song suite from the group's debut album "Is This It" rolled through "Last Nite," "Take It or Leave It" and "Someday," songs that still sounded as red hot as they did in 2001. 

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama