The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea recently joined a discussion on Twitter about performing live without anyone, or very few people showing up. The discussion began when an actor wrote about her one-member crowd for her one-woman play:
“There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one-woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at ed fringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…?”
Former satirical comedy group The Credibility Gap member Michael McKean quote-tweeted, telling his own story:
“The Credibility Gap did a gig in Santa Barbara many years ago. Nobody showed. We watched the opening act, then they watched us. They were a duo and we were a quartet so they had a bigger crowd.”
Flea responded to McKean’s tweet and revealed that one Red Hot Chili Peppers show:
“Rhcp once played a show on a snowy wintry night at some club in the midwest. 3 people watched us perform, and they all worked there. there was a light up disco floor like in saturday night fever. was a great show!”
Although lots of people showed up, one of the RHCP’s controversial shows was Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show in 2014 because they were backtracking while miming with unplugged instruments. Flea released a statement back in the days, explaining the situation:
“When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded. I understand the NFL’s stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage, there a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the t.v. viewers. There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period.”
You can read the tweets regarding the discussion below.
There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine…? 🥹 pic.twitter.com/D0lfAsMMz0
— Georgie Grier (@georgie_grier) August 3, 2023
The Credibility Gap did a gig in Santa Barbara many years ago. Nobody showed. We watched the opening act, then they watched us. They were a duo and we were a quartet so they had a bigger crowd. https://t.co/q7SVtcFV22
— Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) August 5, 2023
rhcp once played a show on a snowy wintry night at some club in the midwest. 3 people watched us perform, and they all worked there. there was a light up disco floor like in saturday night fever. was a great show! https://t.co/yIdJBVXYtd
— Flea (@flea333) August 5, 2023
