Credit: Clara BalzaryRed Hot Chili Peppers will perform a short acoustic set on Saturday in Los Angeles at the annual benefit gala for bassist Flea's music education organization, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music. While the band is in the middle of recording their next album, they won't be debuting any new material at the event.
"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," frontman Anthony Kiedis tells Rolling Stone. "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."
For the new album, the band's first since 2011's I'm with You, RHCP is working with acclaimed producer Danger Mouse.
"He's very good about coming up with super-modern ideas, but he'll also touch on the acoustic guitar in the control room and strip the song down to its acoustic essentials," says Kiedis of Danger Mouse. "Which is a beautiful place to be."
As for what they will be playing at the benefit, Kiedis says the band has been rehearsing old hits and trying out covers.
"I love to play acoustic, whether we're talking about 'By the Way' or an old song like 'Me and My Friends,'" he says. "These very aggressive, loud, chaotic-sounding electric songs work rather nicely on quiet acoustic instruments. We rehearsed yesterday and played everything acoustically from 'Fire' by Jimi Hendrix to trying to figure out if 'Californication' works on acoustic -- which it did."
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