When Josh Klinghoffer sat down with the Free Press before going on stage Friday night at MTS Centre, he spoke about the complete uniqueness of what it is the Chili Peppers are able to create — everyone knows a Flea bass line the moment they hear it, and while some may be able to play it, nobody can do it like the man himself.

"Nobody has that thumb," Klinghoffer laughed.

And the same with frontman Anthony Kiedis — nobody has that voice.

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith flanked by bassist Flea (left) and guitar player Josh Klinghoffer (Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press)

But it wasn't either of those things that opened the night; instead, a strange saxophone solo blasted through the speakers, ushering Klinghoffer, Flea and drummer Chad Smith on stage. They then launched into a jam session that ended with Kiedis making his first appearance as a blanket of illuminated cylindrical lighting fixtures raised and lowered themselves from the ceiling, their movements reflecting the beats of opening song Can't Stop. It was certainly an impressive start to the night, in a sensory-overload kind of way.

The Chili Peppers are about a year into a world tour and have been switching up the set list from night to night. In Winnipeg, they kept the new songs to a minimum off the top, starting with a triple-header of classics which also included Snow (Hey Oh) and Scar Tissue — it was a trend that continued for the rest of the night, with only a couple tracks from their most recent record, the Getaway, popping up.

After being on tour for 12 months straight and having more than 30 years of history playing together (Klinghoffer excluded), there's not a lot of fault to find in the music itself. Kiedis' voice did hit some bumps along the road, but they were few and far between and easy to forget, given the strength of the rest of his delivery.

An unexpected, but wonderful, addition to the set was the collection of instrumental breaks that popped up three or four times; most often the moment featured Flea and Klinghoffer in a sort of duelling guitar situation. Both are stunning guitarists, and it was a treat to see them riff off each other in that way.

The lighting design was so inventive it warrants another mention — the hundreds of cylinders hanging from the roof continued to change their formation and colour for almost every song; they moved individually, in one large chunk creating a wave effect, and in smaller batches of rectangular, square and linear blocks and a handful of other designs. That's the last mention of light design, I promise, but it was endlessly impressive.

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea performs at the MTS Centre Friday. (Phil Hossack / Winnipeg Free Press)

It's hard to believe most members of the band are in their mid-50s as they jumped, danced and hurled themselves around the stage with seemingly little control over their bodily movements — there is still a beautiful quality of youth in them, evidenced even more when Kiedis whipped his top off just six songs in for Go Robot.

It was an oddly comforting gesture; a Chili Peppers show with a fully-clothed band just doesn't feel quite right.

Chit-chat was pretty minimal, with Flea taking the most opportunities to say (or holler) something into the mike.

Normally, lack of direct interaction with the crowd makes the night feel impersonal, but the Chili Peppers were moving at such a breakneck pace for the first half of their set that stopping to talk would have felt as though they were killing their own momentum.

Things did lull a bit in the middle, though they snuck crowd favourite Californication in there which helped amp up the room again.

Their main set wound down with a pair of tracks from Blood Sugar Sex Magik — the aggressive Suck My Kiss and emotional slow jam I Could Have Lied — while By the Way closed the night with a booming sing-along, all 12,000 fans on their feet in a state of pure euphoria.

After a boisterous standing ovation, the band returned for a three-song encore.

First, Klinghoffer took the stage solo, blasting through a cover of Jimmy Scott's Sycamore Trees (made famous by the TV series Twin Peaks, which was recently rebooted — David Lynch wrote the lyrics for the song).

The rest of the band then joined Klinghoffer, Flea walking on his hands to his place on stage, to finish with their newest single, Goodbye Angels, and Give It Away.

As far as rock shows go, this was one of the best to pass through town in recent memory, and it illustrated why the Red Hot Chili Peppers have earned their iconic status.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel