With his court jester 'leotard and leggings' ensemble, Flea looks more like an escapee from the freakshow than the bass player of one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Coupled with his frog-man dance and constant phallic masturbation of his instrument, he performs to the crowd and the crowd love it. It's a full house at Earls Court on this the fifth night of their London residency and before noodling away into Fortune Faded he confirms the bands psyche. "We're fragile, we are fragile".The Staduim Arcadium album - the reason for tonight - gets a good workout. Most of the audience knows every word - though as far as crowd pleasers go it's the older hits that win them over - a sea of mobile phones lit-up for Californication and By The Way. Keidis is on frontman autopilot. He dances, he bends the mike stand, he says very little between songs, leaving Flea to fill in the gaps with the token "Thank you for all coming here tonight", and "We're really grateful we can play this record in front of peoples faces before our very eyes." (as if by magic!)Suprise guest Patti Smith provides highlight of the evening with her spontaneous poetry backed by the band. Random words spat out and sang to a gyrating rhythm. Keidis takes to the keyboards. Smiths' legendary voice fills the stadium and it's a shame when her time on stage is over. Later a woeful version of Duke of Earl sung by John Frusciante brings the mood right down. He also manages to tease us with the opening bars of London Calling and Sunday Bloody Sunday but stops prematurely before launching into more unfamiliar song territory. Towards the end of the show the crowd sitting in the 'poor' seats start leaving while others seem to wake up for Under The Bridge. Flea gives us the curt and final "Thank you so much for coming".
-Eden Anderson
