With four sold out concerts in a row at one of the biggest venues inside Central London, I knew the Red Hot Chilli Peppers would be performing one great show. The tickets for Monday night were not cheap – in fact, were by far the most expensive concerts tickets I’ve paid so far, but managing to score standing tickets was completely worth the money, with a solid performance lasting just over two hours.

Anyone who has been to a concert at Earl’s Court will tell you how different the experience would be if you are standing (in effectively this case, one big giant mosh pit), or sitting where you get an overall better but more removed view of the stage. I’m not sure how many people were in the standing section, but certainly the waves of people trying to squeeze into every available space made it a little claustrophobic at times, but at least the cool air pumped into the crowd helped to bring some relief.

The set was a good mix of songs from their current amazing double album, Stadium Arcadium, and a brief selection from a number of their other albums. Some came from some of their early albums and helped to whip all their long term fans into quite a frenzied audience. The band even performed a small cover of the Bee Gee’s “How Deep Is Your Love” that the audience surprisingly lapped up.

The visuals for the night centred around four screens that moved around in various configurations, a set of six or seven hubs of lights that looked like mini UFOs and a set of horizontal bar lights covering the entire back of the stage that then reached across most of the standing audience. The screens played some awesome animations and merged at times to form one giant widescreen to show some of the incredible guitar duets or solos played throughout the night.

I have no idea what it is, but the ability of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to continue to produce quality rock music over so many years is a testament to their talent and I found their live performance easily matched anything you could find on their album.

The Kua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

One of the great things about London is that sometimes good things from back home come over to visit, such as Lior. Last night was the third time that I’d seen this Sydney-based song writer and artist, and it was great to see that his popularity reaches across the globe (okay, well with many other Aussies who happen to be living across the other side of the world). The event was held at The Spitz, one of the smallest venues I’ve been to so far, but was a great atmosphere easily filled with 200-300 of his fans as well as new listeners of his amazing vocals and music.

He started with his two most popular songs, Autumn Flow and Daniel and interweaved a number of newer songs with a number of his very popular songs from his album. Lior enjoys interacting with the crowd, and last night was no exception with a number of close tales and jokes shared along the way. I think everyone was very impressed by his performance, all amazingly acoustic and stunned by the vocal range he achieves when he performs. He even tried to get the crowd involved with his Superficial song but I think failed to evaluate the (lack of) talent in the crowd – after all, we are there to listen to him. He finished the night off with his hauntingly stunning song, Grey Ocean and finished off with a Hebrew prayer.

TheKua.com Rating: 8 out of 10

I just got back from watching Pete Murray perhaps at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Out of the number of venues I have been to in London so far, this is one of my most favourite since it is relatively intimate and close to where I live. Pete Murray’s concert was announced a while back and sold out quite quickly. He soon announced another one, to which I fortunately got tickets to go and see.

I remember when Ben invited me to see Pete Murray at The Rev, a much smaller and even more intimate venue in Brisbane. I was impressed with his tunes back then, and it was just before he got really big. The next time I saw him play was two months later where he played for a massive crowd at Splendour in the Grass after which his then album, Feeler, rocketed through the charts.

His latest album, See the Sun, has seen the same success as his previous, and as of this writing, currently one of the top ten albums in Australian charts. This album is filled with the same husky vocals and acoustic guitar sounds as his previous album but the tunes and lyrics tend to take a more summery and brighter feel.

Tonight’s concert was a good mix of good and old, starting with a classic and finishing with a classic all backed by another awesome band, The Stonemason’s. The venue was completely packed out with a good mix of English, Canadian and other antipodean people all taken by the set lasting for almost an hour and a half. Pete himself seems fairly timid, unlike your typically flamboyant rock star, but he still manages to play a mean song.

Definitely one of the best gigs I’ve been to this year!

Despite being under the weather this week, I still managed to drag myself out of the house and see The Delays perform at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Tuesday night. The best thing about seeing them at Shepherd’s Bush Empire is that it’s a smoke-free zone, and frankly I didn’t need any additional help coughing on my own.

I have always enjoyed listening to The Delays after hearing their first album, Faded Seaside Glamour, a great example of the hauntingly different indie-pop-rock tunes they can produce. They apparently had a fair amount of airplay in the UK, but they also got some airplay back home on Triple J. This particular concert promoted the release of their new album, You See Colours, on Monday. They played a number of songs off their new album, and even though there are definitely heavier rock undertones in contrast to their first album, the poignant vocals and lyrics that are distinctly ‘The Delays’-only is still there. It’s one of those ones that I am going to have to listen to fully sometime very soon.

They mixed playing their new songs with a number of the crowd’s favourites from their first album including Long Time Coming, Bedroom Scene, Nearer Than Heaven and Wanderlust (and so many more). The light show, obviously themed to be consistent with their newest album was amazing and the band did not disappoint on Tuesday.