On the night of Oct. 17, at an undisclosed Los Angeles warehouse in Frogtown, Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Josh Klinghoffer and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers opened up a benefit gala that aimed to raised money for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. The rare, acoustic set even boasted a cover of Jimi Hendrix's 1967 classic "Fire."
A video posted by GEOFF MOORE (@thegeoffmoore) on Oct 18, 2015 at 12:53am PDT
The hyper-exclusive, 300-seat gig also aided the charity by auctioning off pieces by renowned artists like Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey, Jeff Koons, Gus Van Sant and Dennis Hopper, as Stereogum reports. The Saturday night event saw the 2014 Super Bowl Half Time performers open for LA jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington as well as a headlining performer John Legend.
Including the Hendrix track, the group tackled a five-song set with fan favorite RHCP hits, including "By the Way," "Californication,""Sir Psycho Sexy" and "Around the World." "All of Me" singer Legend later took on a rendition of "Dancing in The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen, which was also captured in fan-shot footage and posted to the Internet.
#silverlakeconservatoryofmusic @silverlake_conservatory @events.scm real deal beauty A video posted by @danalouisek on Oct 17, 2015 at 9:46pm PDT
The I'm With You musicians didn't offer up any new, highly anticipated material during the gig, however. Frontman Anthony Kiedis recently revealed that the band would refrain from performing fresh tracks due to fear of footage being leaked online.
"The torture about doing this [show] is that we've been writing new music for the last year, and we've written some songs that I feel are as good as any songs we've ever written. We're just dying to play the new songs - but we can't, because every single human has a recording device on them at all times," Kiedis told Rolling Stone of the tough decision to withhold their latest work, which was described as "super danceable."
Drummer Chad Smith recently participated in a similarly, kid-centered jam session for a Little Kids Rock event which reeled in over $85,000 to provide music education to children. The event also honored the RHCP member with a "Livin the Dream" award for being such a prevalent figure in music education.
