Like I mention in the video, the purpose of this is for me to breakdown parts as I see them, as they come. It's not to play the full performance uninterrupted. There are copyright issues and I want the original poster to get credit for their upload.

No matter what the state of the other members of the band, Chad was always solid. I don't think the group would have lasted without him. A true professional.

Seems like Chad was the most professional in the group. Always has been a great guy and has been a fantastic ambassador for the drum world. Saw him on a drumeo video and he completely blew me away. Tons of respect.

Chad thinking "I don't ever wanna feel like I did that day"

Anthony Kiedis has a hard time not singing flat under the best of circumstances. He had no chance here.

Jimi Hendrix did the cigarete thing. There's a very clear photograph of him at his last gig doing that

Chad worked pretty hard to get the tempo up. It starts at around 60BPM and when Chad comes in he pulls it up to 70, then in the break, where it takes off, he push it to around 80BPM. Maybe John's mind stayed at 60?

Amazed to hear the Red Hot Chilis do a spot on cover of my version of Under The Bridge.

It’s almost like John was just trying to sabotage the performance. He had to know he was out of tune. It’s like he’s a child who doesn’t want to be there. The tension is palpable. Really cool video. I think when Chad and flea came in really hard on that part, they could have been trying to drown John out and salvage a cool part of the song.

Please more content like this!! Not under the bridge lol but live performance breakdowns. So interesting/entertaining and I think amateur musicians like myself could really get a lot out of it

The drummer is the backbone of the band. Chad did his best to save this performance.

Loved this. Those stares between the band members, damn, I could feel the tension just looking at 'em. Loved your commentary and descriptions, "some crazy call out, some kind of animal call" haha, I was laughing all the way through 🙂

John was intentionally "sabotaging" some performances. At the end of the BSSMagik era/tour, there is a version of Under the Bridge with the solo from Stairway to Heaven in the final part of the song 🤣🤣 (Edit 1= kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ecWEhrN6t7rJdKc.html

By comparison, even when Slash is drunk out of his mind in 1991 performing his Welcome to the Jungle intro solo he manages to sound cool af.

Love these breakdown videos. Been playing in bands a while and it’s cool to see other people pointing out all the little changes, problems, and impromptu stuff. Would love to see more of this kind of stuff.

I was in a band that the singer and drummer were mortal enemies. One of the last gig's the drummer broke a stick and the broken part hit the singer, singer thought it was on purpose and threw it back. By the end of the song the drummer had emptied his stick bag on the singer. That was the beginning of the end of round two with the two if them. Round one was while in practice the guitar player starts playing Tooth & Nail, We didn't play the song and nobody really knew it but we went for it. Well it started off pretty good but it did fall apart and before anyone could say something good the singer tells the drummer what he was supposed to of payed. The drummer said never ever tell me what to play or when again as he calmly got up walked over to the singer and punched him in the mouth, turned around and started to break down his kit. Singer jumped in car and sped off. Me and the guitar player started wrapping up cords..... Right after we stopped the tape recorder... Yep got it all on tape and it was a solid punch and with echo it was even better.

So when you say you're done with this song, and it's all okay now with the bad.... you could say, that it's all water under the bridge now.

I got one of those stares from the vocalist/guitarist when I zoned out and did an extra verse, didn't even know it until I was mid way into the chorus and my beat started not fitting all that well anymore... Don't zone out on stage, people.. It's not good.

In the book Scar Tissue Anthony does talk about how they used to rip on John a lot when he first joined to the point of him doing things like this then eventually quitting. It was meant as a sort of “initiation” type of hazing but he admits maybe they used to go a little too hard on him back in those days.

As someone who's been in the situation of having to play live with a band (and even record an EP) while you desperately want to leave, I can attest it is extremely mentally straining. This performance makes total sense in context.

would've been interesting to see what happened backstage after that performance..

Can you do a video covering an almost opposite situation? Pearl Jam's SNL Rearviewmirror performance is what comes to mind for me; they seem so cohesive, and the drummer is able to elevate them so effectively.

would love to see more analyses of bad performances

2:20 That snare buzz is a constant, and it's really noticeable when you're sitting behind a kit. Certain notes that hit the drum's resonant frequencies hard will really make the snares sing, but they're pretty much buzzing whenever anyone is playing anything. I always used to throw off my snares if we had a long, quiet section like the intro to this song, then carefully throw them back on before I came in.

Our band supported them in the late 80s in manchester and London, I'd never heard them much before, jack Irons and Hillel were still in the band, Hillel was to die shortly after. They were great.

There was another "performance" in Belgium during those years (1999 or 2k...) where Anthony and John were awfully out of tune, Flea and Chad did their job, but the whole band looked like they did not care about the audience.

I saw them at Coachella in 2007 or 2008. They were really good. John did a magnificent solo version of Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird". Good times. 👽✌️

Frank Zappa used to keep his cigarette like that in the '70s

I remember that wailing backup vocal from'91. The bit about John being in tune with himself but not with the band reminds me of a Corey Wong video called "3 mistakes rhythm guitarists make". The third mistake was about being conscious about what you're playing ( not that he is at that time) so what you're playing isn't clashing with the rest of that band.

Wow Mike! One of my favorite bands and what a great look at a bad performance. First off, very thankful when I saw them in concert live for the By The way tour, it was magical and not dysfunctional. I do remember seeing the SNL performance live at the time and trying to explain to my mom, that they aren't singing off Key on purpose....hahaha But secondly, what a great series this would be going through amazing bands doing bad performances. We all have done it, and we all have them caught on tape some place somewhere. Love that as a guitar player, you still feel the pain of every other member on that stage. One of the biggest reasons I respect your views is that your not just a "guitar player", your a musician! You see the whole picture. There is some stuff in that performance that John does that could be pretty cool on it's own if the tuning was correct and someone else was in control of the rhythm guitar parts so crucial to the song! Haha. If you have time, I'd love to see a few more of these just like the " Bad Tab" series! Great video, thanks for showing it.

man even their worse part is better than mine 😂

Clapton and Jimi did the cigarette thing before Slash was born.

This is painful to watch. I can always tell quickly that things are off with my band. When we're in the packet, it's magic.

John was deep into heroine at this time. The whole band knew the struggles and kept their mouths closed, hoping he would stay, but in the end John made the right choice that saved his life. I'm happy he's still here. The 80's and 90's were completely different than today. It was fun and crazy but dangerous as hell.

I never saw RHCP live, but back in the 90s they were not known for being a great live band. Friends of mine came very disillusioned from RHCP-concerts telling me, that it was a complete mess. But when I watch actual live-footage of them I think they have grown on stage and are pretty tight today.

I never saw them until 2022, but caught them twice on that tour. They were so good both nights! It was great to see John back too

Hard to imagine famous bands like that playing that sloppily.

"The wheels are coming off" 😂 I love watching my music heros screw up. Can't lie to ya Marge!! The Van Halen one with the Keyboards in E and the band in Eb is priceless.

They should have just stopped, smiled, said sorry, tuned up, and said, "Okay, let's do this!"

These kinds of things really stand out when you're basically a 3-piece playing pretty clean. You got 1 guitar taking up the role of filling all the sonic space and every little mistake sticks out like a sore thumb

Anthony Kiedis wrote about the SNL performance in his book, but I actually liked John's playing in that one. Pretty cool fills.

Chad’s the king of groove! And he feels it every time

I watched this on TV when it aired live back in the day in France with my buddy. We just started getting into the RHCP and were looking forward to seeing them live on TV. We looked at each other like WTF? lol

"He's in tune with himself" lol ouch.

Great videos , love your channel, maybe let the performance run a little longer, its hard for me to grab a hold of the mishaps in the performance with all the stops. 😀

Best time to see John play would be 1990, when he’s still on fire live, bursting with energy and singing Inca Roads by Zappa. The Pinkpop concert is a good example, plus they play Hillel tracks off Uplift Mofo, Inc Funky Crime.

That isn't a rockstar move with the cigarette, Waylon Jennings did it back in the 70s before Van Halen even

I've been the guy staring and I've also been the problem 😬

I actually enjoyed your clip. You should really consider doing more showcasing bands that suddenly screw up on stage. Most of us wouldn’t catch it until we had somebody like you to pointed out.

I've seen worse performances, I mean I expected worse. John pretty much threw everyone off because he was like I don't care about playing these songs. It was very unstable and he messed up some parts in a very obvious way.

Eric Clapton was the first cigarette in the E string

I remember seeing george harrison do the cigarette thing in an old photo. That technique goes way back lol

Damn, when John and Flee are by themselves playing, you can visibly see the band communicating "John, it's you, you're fucking up" with Flee just staring daggers and Anthony just like "See, I told you"

That SNL performance was a trip! I remember watching it and thinking John's playing and singing parts were way off but somehow, someway still meshed with the song and Anthony's vocals, Chad's drumming and Flea's bass kept the song together! It was like an abstract painting in a rock/funk/blues song version.

I’m so happy that “This is excellent footage!” caught on. Haha.

I did a gig where I was improvising with someone, with me on guitar and him on percussion. Usually we did okay when just jamming out. However, when I listened to the recording of it later, I genuinely felt depressed. He later explained he couldn't really hear my guitar, and I was like, "Well, how come you did not say anything about it?" That is why communication is so important. We are all capable of being off, but if you are playing music with someone and something is off, you have to be able to tell them about it.

I miss that 90s look. Especially Anthony's hair.

I think you're really over thinking the part saying. Anthony was trying to figure out where to sing between flea and Jon. I'm sure he was gonna sing the notes the same way no matter what. To think that he was doing that might be giving him way too much credit.

He did it on purpose to sabotage performance..I saw them live at this time and John was pulling out his guitar cord just before his solos and shouting "blah blah blah" into the mic..the vibes were so bad..he quit shortly after that gig

1:51 The *FIRST* one to every put a cigarette on a guitar was Frank Zappa.

I feel like you skimmed over John's intro guitar part. The fact that he completely improvised that beautiful intro is incredible. There's a part where he plays F# with his thumb, and does a little run with his other fingers, like he's playing both the bass and melody at the same time. Even when he's not trying he can come up with great stuff.

9:31 Anthony: "John, this is Saturday fucking Night fucking Live! You piece of shit!" I'm happy that they are doing well as far as I know.

John was doing the Call of the Cthulhu during his backing vocals

5:00 It would have been funny if he'd tossed an E7#9 in right here lol

The first time i got stoned was under a bridge "downtown". This was the first song i heard at the arcade right after.

I saw them when John came back the first time, Californication tour, it was pretty good. No weird backing vocals at least

It’s amazing that John is still alive today

It's good to remember that even our guitar gods are still human after all and are prone to mistakes. I can definitely imagine that if you would be able to go back in time and record every single live show of rock legends you would encounter at least couple sub par performances - and this is not to throw shade at any band, it is just the way it is when you do anything that stressful and complicated, with so many people and moving parts.

you have to factor in how much this song means to Anthony... they did not get along at that time

I always think of Clapton with the headstock cigarette

John was on smack .. he didn’t want to be famous. Lived in a dingy apartment, didn’t bathe. He was a lose cannon on stage, brilliant, other times… well you just watched it. But I did a gig once our lead singer lost his way in a song, made us look like idiots, I was super angry.

Either he was too high, or too sober

I saw RHCP live in 2001, a few years after John rejoined and there was certainly a bit of tension at that show, with John actually having to ask Anthony what song they were playing next to which Anthony simply replied "this is your show man" Tho luckily the show went without any issues, it just seemed a bit "off"

Him coming in hard on the drums, is drummer speak for, "learn to count and I control the speed of a song you should know." Lol.

Clapton & the Beatles did the ciggy trick back in the 60s, along with Stones!

Could you do more breakdowns like this of other performances and bands? It was entertaining as well as educational for the history of the band and, of course, the music.

Poor Chilis. They went through a lot with John. But he is just too good to not take him back when he wants to return.

The “angry drummer” fills are how they communicate.

1:52 EVH always had the Cig in his headstock ..

John was tanked, he went through a very dark patch. I saw them live 8 times in 2005/2006, and they knocked it out of the park each time. That was the Stadium Arcadium tour.

Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks they botch their live performances. I first noticed this at Bonnaroo 2012 during "Under the Bridge" when they didn't seem to be in sync and I remember my heart dropping when I noticed it, like, "oh no".

Clapton did the cigarette on guitar thing way before EVH did it.

When John does the wail, I always laugh my ass off

I had my drummer look at me (bassist) like that once. But it was because the backup singer was rattling a tambourine out of time in her microphone, not because he and I were out of pocket. That was our backup singer's final performance with the band.

A Chilli Peppers live show not ruined by an awful Kiedis peformance? Must be a first. (Although he also sounds awful here as per usual)

John was definitely high on this one too like he was on SNL. And I got to see them when Josh was playing with them after I’m With You was released.

That falsetto wail from John on SNL is one of Rock’s greatest moments 😂

Still plays more in key then me 😢

Talented indeed, but at times he comes across as a petulant, attention seeking child, sabotaging the entire band in a “you’re not the boss of me” manner.

Drove 14 straight hours in a blizzard (never having driven in snow before), to go watch them live in Des Moine, Iowa in 2006. Got to the concert venue as they started. They were super shit live. But I knew I would never get another chance to see them live and I love their music.

John experimented a lot back then live. He's a musical god and even when he would try to fuck up. He would still accidentally make magic that's pretty f****** badass. Great video!

They've never been that great live. Anthony's voice needs studio production to sound good.

I threw a drumstick at a guitarist once, not hard, just enough to get his attention. I was asked to do a couple shows with a band I knew, as they were looking for a new drummer, and I was just an interim. First show went fine. When we were loading in for the second show, a week later, the bassist asked me for advice on how they could grow their audience. I said I'd take notes that night and see what might need improving. During the show, the band was pretty dismissive of the crowd that turned out, possibly because it wasn't that many people, maybe 20 or so. At one point the guitarist kind of gave up, and he was playing with his back to the crowd, just kinda leaning on a wall, so I threw a drumstick at him, and told him to turn around. I tossed another drumstick at a bass player, but at her feet. She was getting lost in the timing of the song, and the drums weren't playing. I could see her getting frustrated, so I tossed the stick. She looked up at me and I pointed to my hi-hat, showing her that it was opening and closing on the beat heh. She was definitely cool about it, she just laughed and then kept her eye on the hi-hat. After the song I told her I'd keep it going the rest of the show, even where it normally didn't fall, so she could kinda crutch on it. In her defense, she wasn't a bassist, so playing in the pocket was super foreign to her.

I, we opened for The Chili Peppers here in Cincinnati in November, 1985.

The cigarette thing goes further back than Eddie Van Halen…. Clapton, Paige, Beck, Richards

I enjoyed this video but it's worth mentioning that this is around the time that John started dealing with serious substance abuse issues, and was subsequently replaced by Dave Navarro. Technically, this isn't his worst performance but his most experimental. Which isn't the best way to put it but the most accurate.

Please acknowledge me. I have no friends and love your channel. Thanks Art of Guitar.

That's unusual for RHCP, usually the three band members are tight and Anthony is singing way off key is the problem.

I'm just glad John got better and we have this line up alive and well in 2023.

Holy cow, the Chili Peppers was my first show at a small venue in Burlington VT back in 91. I was actually there to see Smashing Pumpkins, but the Chili Peppers put on such an energetic show, playing mostly Mothers Milk stuff. Pearl Jam opened for them. This was like a month after Smells Like Teen Spirit was played on MTV for the first time. One of the best shows ever. Each band really put their all into it. My memory of the Chili Peppers is nothing like what we see in this video, they were all just so full of energy.