Los Angeles-born funk rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Sunday concert at Detroit’s Comerica Park was framed as a homecoming show of sorts — frontman Anthony Kiedis is from Grand Rapids, while drummer Chad Smith, whose kit was festooned with a large Tigers Old English D, grew up in Bloomfield Hills. The band took time out to shout out hero George Clinton, who they cut their sophomore record with in the 1980s, as well as playing a gig at the city’s former Latin Quarter venue years ago.
The band is on tour in support of its recently released chart-topping 12th studio album, Unlimited Love, with a second LP this year due in October. They are joined for the first time in 15 years by long-time on-again, off-again guitarist John Frusciante, who helped stretch the band’s catalog into extended jams in a performance that spanned some two hours, against a massive, psychedelic video backdrop that felt like an acid trip.
The eclectic bill was rounded out by New York-based rock band the Strokes, who played a cool, tight set of mostly early material, and L.A.-based bassist extraordinaire Thundercat, who also has Detroit connections, shouting out his cousins from the stage. —with additional reporting by Lee DeVito
