Stadium Arcadium
From Wikipedia: ”...the [RHCP] album is written mostly about people coming together because of music, which the title track sums up, while several songs focus directly on love.”
In theory, that is.
In theory, the organizers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, city of Indjija, Exit Team and Live nation announced that the organization of this concert was going to be something never seen before in Serbia, with incredible facilities provided to make your experience an unforgetable one and generaly, make your life easier. In real life, It took us around 3,5 hours to leave the parking lot.
In theory, we were going to experience the world famous Vojvodinian hospitality. In real life, the bouncers did not allow for water to be carried inside even though the temperature was extremely hot. The people waiting for the fan-pit from the early morning were left to wait one hour longer in the sun. Bottled water was ridicolously expensive, and the parking crew were nowhere to be found after the show.
In theory, we were told that the band will play for at least two hours. In real life, it lasted for about 75 minutes.
In theory, this was supposed to be a Red Hot Chilly Peppers concert. In real life, however, all of a sudden it turned out that it was a ‘one-day-festival’ – hence the short gig.
In theory, coming by public transport was going to be easy and recommended over coming by car. In real life, there were people waiting for the bus/train until 5 in the morning, six hours after the concert ended.
In theory, a field near Indjija is a great place for concerts. In real life, Nis, Belgrade, Novi Sad and bigger cities are still without competition when it comes to infrastructure.
In theory, RHCP is a cheerfull and fun-loving funk-rock band. In real life, it’s a frigid heartless company doing their job.
So is there any lesson in all of this? Sure there is. Several of them, infact.
Do not use your own car nor the public transportation. Go only to the venues if you can reach them by foot. Otherwise hitchhike or go with someone who has a car. Never park the car in the official parking lot. Park in the cornfield, someone’s front lawn or backyard. Never buy the ticket at official price, you can buy it later at three times lower price. Never come early if you want to go into fan-pit, you can always bribe the bouncers later, and if you are afraid of the parking jam, remember that you can always park in someone’s field. Never throw away your water and sandwitches in front of the gates, you can carry whatever you want inside if you try a bit, even a flare if you want. Don’t go to Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts, they are not worth the money (if you can get in for free, than it’s OK).
Here come some of the RHCP concert in Indjija pictures:
Crowd warming up before the RHCP gig.
Traffic jam after the concert.
You can find few more Red hot Chili Peppers Indjija pics at BGD2.0 flickr
What is the Serbian blogosphere saying?
Elektrokuhinja has some advice for those who didn’t have a good time, including myself and a positive review of the concert.
You can find more RHCP pictures and videos on Dinke’s site too, he is more-less not completely satisfied, much like Eniac.
Aleck is downright pissed at everyone.
Tamburix felt the lack of communication with the band pretty bad.
Miljan recommends NoMeansNo over RHCP anytime [article in English].
Dule has rather mild impressions instead of ‘hot and chili’, just like Holly Rabbit.
If you have a report from the concert share your thoughts in the comments or leave the link to your post, pictures or videos.
update Iva of Invisible Movement (a John Frusciante tribute site) is following the situation after the concert.
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And do take Viktor with you on concerts – thanks to his enormous height and “big giant head” you will never get lost and I guarantee you’ll have the best view if you sit on his sholders
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Well I’m pissed, and no it was not worth it. The company was good though
You know the feeling I got as we went through the carina Viktor?
That we were being shaken down one last time before they let us go – you know like cheap crooks trying to squeeze every dinar from visitors.
And I almost pissed myself laughing when after paying we encountered the most bumpy road surface we experienced all evening. Glad that our money is being put to good use.
Pity Mr Jesic, I dont want to blame you particularly but you were the golden boy who had a glittering political career ahead of you. Now its going to take a miracle to get the democratic block voters to support you when in a decade or so you try to become the new Tadic.
Instead of telling us off you should be reprimanding those working for you – that way we might believe that it wasnt your fault….
At the very least you could say ‘well there were mistakes but this was the first time such a huge concert was staged’. Obviously your PR isnt as good as we were led to believe. Still I remain a strong supporter of Indjias developement as a good example of what can be done for the Serbian economy.
Its true that people in Serbia are quick to find fault but thats no reason to call a spade a spade…
I am disappointed but I would go again
I experienced so many things that day, from driving in a train with no place to move, and very little air, to roaming around and trying to find a car…
I expected all of those things-crowd, “heartless” singing, fuss, parking problems, so I’ m not dissapointed at all. I knew what to expect, and that’s the way it goes. Same things happen everywhere, on all bigger concerts. I had really good time and I’m happy that I saw them live.
The whole traveling adventure for me was part of the fun. Awesome
Traveling was fun, waiting at the parking lot wasn’t.
And I’m thinking now, I’ve been to quite a few big concerts, but I was never this dissapointed – some of the festival gigs lasted longer. And I’ve never seen (or heard for that matter) a band do just ONE song on encore. Especially in front of hundred thousand people. I respect them, but i expect some respect in return – sorry, but just being at RHCP gig is not enough for me, even if they are my favorite band – I expect to have fun and party because they are a party band. But I did not even see them smile, not once, let alone have fun. Dissapointed.
I have been there
drove from Croatia… Previously came from Moscow to Dubrovnik… Have been at fun-sector …
I think RCHP was great… audience at fun-sector was absolutely MTV oriented young people… all tried to sing when couldn’t
all claping, jumping and have no rythm … ppl were really funny … at all songs “from MTV videos” I cound’t hear Kidis… cause ppl try to sing and crow it 
no reactions on real music moments… it was disappointing for me…
may be for band too…
so how far have you been from stage?
where you been? It have no chance to get real music feeling when you 200meters from stage and can see musicians only at screens. it’s rule 
Organization was extremely BAD
but not a band.
It’s that I think about
srry for english mistakes. 
http://music.jimi.ru//4/johnfrusciante.avi
RHCP are about 7 years past their “best use before” date, in my humble opinion. Since we live in a global culture where relevance is mostly based on a given product’s standing in the eyes of 18 to 34 year old demographic, RHCP continue to be very marketable despite the extremely substandard value of their creative output throughout the last decade (last 3 studio albums to be exact). In fact, every studio album of theirs since Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik is inferior to its own predecessor, while the stuff since One Hot Minute barely merits a mention as far as I’m concerned.
Saw them live twice – March 1996 in Toronto’s SkyDome during One Hot Minute tour and once more at Woodstock ’99. The former was a decent, if not particularly memorable, arena show with Dave Navarro still in the lineup while the latter closely resembled what Viktor described in his post – basically a half-ass phone-in festival performance.
I mean, they were never really known for rockin’ live shows, anyway, but the day I stopped caring about them was when their studio albums also started sucking.