Inspired by “great” experience of people who visited RHCP concert in Serbia, I decided to compare it with one concert I’ve visited this week.

The band I went to see is NoMeansNo – legendary Canadian punk-jazz-rock band (for those who don’t know NoMeansNo, their music sounds like Primus playing Punk), formed almost 30 years ago, they are even older than RHCP. They played in a small club in Brno for approximately 400-500 people. The price of the ticket was 10 euros. RHCP played in an open field with 19 meters long stage in front of more than 100.000 people. Ticket – 40-50 euros.

NoMeansNo started interaction with the fans the moment they got on the stage. Little jokes while setting up the the instruments were enough to make crowd smile. I started smiling the moment I saw how old they are. :) But with the first song they broke all my illusions that they are too old to give a good and fun concert. It was amazing how much energy they have despite their age. And the club they played in can not be called a perfect place for concerts – it was too damn hot inside! With the combination of good humor, good music and high amount of energy from their side the concert prove to be a real hit. I will go to see them again whenever I have the chance although I am not their greatest fan.

On the other side, RHCP came to the concert 50 minutes late, started playing with no interaction with the crowd, played with no interaction with the crowd and ended playing with no interaction with the crowd. Not even a “Thank you” for the end. Not to mention they didn’t play their most known hits but some songs known only to them. The singer even forgot the lyrics of some songs. People came from Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and even from Israel to see this concert, and they went home after 70 minutes of total disappointment.

Moral of this post is that excuses like “They are old, you can’t expect them to play like when they were in their 20′s” people usually say for bands like RHCP are not true. NoMeansNo and other bands I had a chance to see live, like Napalm Death and Toy Dolls or even crazy Iggy Pop, all even older than RHCP, are more than capable of giving a really good show if they are not there only to take the money. RHCP obviously does not belong in this category.