The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg, giants in their respective pop music genres, packed the Journal Pavilion in a rowdy and amazing live performance Saturday night.
Snoop and his band, the Snoopadellics, opened the show and played for an hour and a half - much to the relief of fans who remembered the half-hour fiasco that was last year's Sunshine Theatre performance.
Snoop mixed classics like "Gin and Juice" and "Lodi Dodi" with songs off his new album and songs he said were written just days before the show. His posse danced around stage hitting on attractive girls in the pit and passing around gigantic joints.
Snoop stopped the show as he was handed one of the joints and joked with the crowd about how he had quit smoking marijuana. Later, he told the audience that if the cops got on the stage to arrest him, the audience should attack the cops. He smiled sarcastically, cluing the crowd in on the joke.
His crowning moment came when he burst into a hip-hop version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and the crowd went wild while starting a mosh pit.
Snoop walked off stage as the sun faded away.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Chili Peppers, well known for their legendary live performances, showed nothing but love to the crowd - which managed to know the lyrics to every song they played - as the quartet jumped, spun and went wild Peppers-style.
The show, clearly lead by guitarist John Frusciante, was a festival of friendship for the band. Each musician gave a solo performance between songs, while the other three members looked on, marveling at the talent in each performance.
The Chili Peppers acted almost boyband-ish in their roles. Bassist Flea seemed youthful and innocent inviting the giant crowd out to the hot springs the next day. Singer Anthony Kiedis was shirtless by song two and patiently waited for the band to build the song up to the right moment before he made his entrance.
Chad Smith, doing his best Will Ferrell impression on the drums, shot the crowd priceless facial expressions. He repeatedly tossed his drumsticks up in the air only to miss them on the way down and then look sheepishly out to the audience while picking up another stick, never missing a beat.
Still, this show belonged to Frusciante, the youngest member of the band, as he led countless solos and sang in a falsetto voice taking over when Kiedis was absent. He was the most mobile member of the band, running from one wing of the stage to the other as he played excellent guitar rifts.
It was Frusciante who played the lead into every song, and it was Frusciante who would stop the music to thank the crew and as send out his prayers to former opening act Mars Volta, whose keyboardist died a few weeks ago, forcing them to withdraw from the tour.
The Chili Peppers' set ended with a long jam session. Slowly, the members made their exits with Kiedis first and Smith next followed by Frusciante - Flea waved goodbye and left the stage walking on his hands.
