Hello friends, both old and new.

This issue is more of a collection of links and thoughts as opposed to something themed on a specific thing. This is just an experiment of sorts - what do I have to say that can’t be put elsewhere? Next month, it might be different.

I hope everyone’s enjoying Flea’s book. I read it in 24 hours about three weeks ago (thanks Hachette!) and found it incredible. A lot of new stories, and a new perspective on some old stories. The passage about Hillel’s death slayed me. It doesn’t feature the band too much, of course, and some of the stuff he does say, he gets wrong (I will make that right!), but he’s such a wonderful, spiritual writer that I could read a thousand more pages. I hope he writes another book; I hope everyone reads this.

Four shows have been announced for 2020, with more on the way. Is there a new album on the horizon? Perhaps; summer festival shows and new albums usually go hand in hand. Here’s hoping there’s some news by March or April. Flea has mentioned that the band are getting back into gear in December, so here’s hoping they’re farther along in the process than we think they are.

The boys played Purple Stain on November 2nd for the first time since July 2004. I certainly wasn’t expecting that. And I wonder why the band have been thinking about Californication so much in recent weeks?

After the recent performances of Dosed, Encore, and Sikamikanico, I think the next surprise, unexpected song played will be Save the Population. There’s no reason why I’m saying this… they teased it once in 2006, but they could play it in full pretty easily. Who knows? I’m just putting the idea out there.

Have you listened to the Universally Speaking podcast yet? Available at that link and anywhere you listen to your poddies. I’ve been very much enjoying listening to the Townsend brothers these past couple of months. Casual but passionate, the best kind of fan. And thanks, guys, for the shoutout, a couple of episodes ago. If I’m ever in the UK I’m definitely coming on the show.

The Track Variant Guide is 65 pages of deep and heavy minutia about different versions of Chili Peppers tracks. I spent a very difficult few weeks writing this about a year ago, and I’m pretty happy with it. You may find it interesting. I want to get back to it at one point and make it a LOT more detailed. I’m talking catalog codes, track timings, the whole works.

Researching and writing this book about the band in 1983 has made me keenly aware of how quickly the spatial history of the Chili Peppers is being erased. Buildings get torn down all the time, of course, especially in Los Angeles, and especially when the buildings could be better used as apartment blocks or mixed-use areas.

For example; the Grandia Room, the site of their first gig in December 1982, was torn down in about 2010, and the whole block has been turned into The LC by CLG. It’s a shame we can’t go into the room where the RHCP first played, but I understand; people need places to eat and sleep and buy candles, and they’re not exactly going to add all these places to some National Trust like they would for the Beatles.

The outside of the Grandia Room circa 1986.

The inside of the Grandia Room circa 1995 - after it had been turned into The Martini Lounge.

Even the buildings from their early years that are still standing, such as the Cathay De Grande, have been completely gutted and rebuilt, and don’t resemble their dirty, dive-bar former selves.

But the Chili Peppers didn’t always play dive-bars in Hollywood. And as the years pass, I wonder what will happen to all the other places they’ve played. Recently it’s been mostly arenas, sure, but even arenas get torn down. So there’s a place they played five times… gone forever.

And it’s not just venues. Bijou Studios, where some early demos (and parts of One Hot Minute) were recorded, has been sold to real estate developers. Eldorado, where the first album was recorded, is now a bizarre members-only hotel where you have pay $2600 a year just so you can then book an expensive room. The Mansion, where Blood Sugar Sex Magik was tracked, isn’t actually a recording studio anymore; director Mark Romanek owns it and lives there with his family, but it still looks similar to how it did back in 1991:

There’s something sad about all this, something melancholy, but I’m sure it’ll be a lot worse in about twenty years. When the band aren’t a current thing any more, we’ll look back on these early years with a different, more reflective eye perhaps, and maybe it’s important to catalogue this kind of thing before that happens.

I thought I’d conduct a little experiment to see how many venues from one leg of a Chili Peppers tour are still standing. I picked late 1991 because they’d be big enough places, but it was long enough ago that time has moved on.

I did just ten venues because I don’t want to bore you too much, and I started from the 12th of November, because that’s the date I’m writing this now. Duplicates were omitted.

This is probably only interesting to me – but I guess it’s related to another hobby of mine, which is finding Street View locations of random photos from the past. How much has changed? How much hasn’t?

12-16 November, 1991 - Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY

The Roseland Ballroom in New York City closed in 2014, and a 62 storey apartment complex is currently being built in its place.

(What do skinny jeans and cheap hotels have in common? No ballroom!)

13 November, 1991 - Rocky Point Palladium, Warwick, RI

The Rocky Point Amusement Park (which held the Palladium) was closed in 1994, and the whole thing was bulldozed a few years later, now it’s a State Park.

Here’s a video of someone walking through the semi-demolished Palladium – feel melancholy yet?

17 November, 1991 - Rec Hall, Pen State College, PA

The Rec Hall, at Pen State College in Pennsylvania, is still standing and still in use.

19 November, 1991 - Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Colombus, OH

This auditorium, which was renamed the Franklin County Veterans Memorial, was torn down in 2015.

20 November, 1991 - Kalamazoo State Theater, Kalamazoo, MI

The Kalamazoo State Theater (which looks incredible) is still in use today.

22-23 November, 1991 - State Theater, Detroit, MI

The State Theater in Detroit is now known as The Fillmore Detroit, and it’s still going strong.

24 November, 1991 - Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, IN

The Indiana Convention Center looks like it’s been completely changed and expanded since 1991, but it’s still open.

26 November, 1991 - Braden Auditorium, Ilinois State University, IL

Also still open.

27 November, 1991 - Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, OH

A recent demolition - it’s being turned into a factory, so I guess that’s okay. Kinda wild to flip through the years in Street View. This massive structure just… disappears.

29 November, 1991 - Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL

Perhaps the most famous venue of all I’ve mentioned, the Aragon is still open, and has been given a catchy new name to boot.

Out of ten venues, four of them have been torn down. Pretty good success rate, or pretty bad, depending on who you ask. Some of them are never going to be demolished or closed, because they’re protected or culturally significant in some way. But unimportant places, like Cincinnati Gardens? The world moves on pretty quickly. They aren’t culturally significant. Bulldozers move in, and to exist in that space as it was on November 27, 1991, is no longer possible. Just something to think about.

See you next time.

Hamish.