POP MUSIC REVIEW : Chili Peppers, Nirvana a Spicy Combination

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ homecoming concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena put a new twist on the old saying, “What if you gave a party and nobody came?”

Given the Los Angeles rock band’s legion of rabid fans, there was no real doubt that the group could fill the 16,000-capacity arena. In fact, virtually all the tickets for Friday night’s show were sold in one day last November.

The real question: “What if you gave a concert and your special guest stole the show?”

That was a possibility.

Because upcoming young bands will sometimes explode commercially after touring contracts have been signed, fans will occasionally have more interest in that young band than in the show headliner.

And no young band is hotter at the moment than Nirvana, an alternative-college trio from Washington state that has parlayed a critically acclaimed album and solid MTV video hit into the national Top 10 charts.

In recent weeks, the group’s “Nevermind” album has been higher on the national charts than the latest releases of such commercial powerhouses as Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.

So how did things turn out at the Sports Arena?

In what proved to be one of the year’s most satisfying pairings, both bands turned in impressive, crowd-pleasing sets.

However, the future may rest with Nirvana.

That’s because the Peppers may be deluxe party-givers but Nirvana--led by singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain--has more substantial and ultimately enthralling music.

The hi-jinks started right away with the Peppers, whose strength is in its mix of frequently zany showmanship and winning funk-rock instrumental grooves.

As the quartet started the opening song shortly after 10 p.m., you could hear bassist Flea, but you could only see singer Anthony Kiedis, guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.

Where was Flea?

The puzzle was solved as the bassist was slowly lowered, head-first, from the top of the massive stage frame.

It was the ideal introduction for anyone just catching up with a group that has been a symbol of irreverence and innovation on the L.A. rock scene since the mid-’80s.

Mixing a frat-party sensibility with trailblazing punk, funk and rap musical strains, the group lives up in many ways to what one of its old press bios referred to as a cross between the Marx Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, P. T. Barnum and Salvador Dali.

While that combination once made the Peppers an influential and original force, the independence and inter-cultural design are becoming increasingly common in rock--and several more recent arrivals, including Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More, are moving past the Peppers in the essential area of songwriting.

It’s fun to spend time in concert with the Peppers, thanks to the band’s dance-minded grooves and disarming demeanor--much of the latter generated by Flea, whose stutter-step crawl is rock’s best update of Chuck Berry’ duck-walk.

At the end of the evening, however, the only song you’re likely to walk away from the concert humming is Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.”

Several of the themes on the group’s new Warner Bros. album, for instance, have something to say, including the anti-racism sentiments of “The Power of Equality.” But the lyrics are more in the form of Everyteen exposition than revealing or original commentary.

If songwriting is the Peppers’ nagging weakness, it is one of Nirvana’s chief strengths. When Cobain stands at the microphone and sings about life in today’s teen wasteland, he makes you feel every word matters.

Cobain sings and writes about romantic complexities and youthful apathy with much of the intensity and insight of the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg. What gives the group added power is that its musical vision is wide enough for both a grungy hard-rock fury and a melodic pop accessibility.

Though the group, which was playing clubs only a few months ago, didn’t seem comfortable on the arena stage, Nirvana pressed forward commandingly with the music rather than bemoan the setting, in the annoying manner of Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, the evening’s opening act.

It was a risky move for Nirvana to use “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the group’s MTV hit, early in the 35-minute set.

The fact that Nirvana would take such a chance showed that the group isn’t being intimidated by its recent success into playing it safe. And Nirvana’s effective delivery of striking numbers as the Beatlesque “Lithium” also demonstrated another point to those in the Sports Arena audience who haven’t heard the “Nevermind” album.

The imagination and passion of the additional songs showed that there is much more to this richly impressive new group than the MTV hit. Much more.