Red Not Chili Peppers bring the Frusciante years to Mesa Theater

The long-running San Diego tribute band plays Grand Junction's Main Street room on Thu, Feb 4, with tickets at $20–$25.

There's a certain kind of Thursday night that Grand Junction does well: a cheap ticket, a packed floor at the Mesa Theater, and a few hundred people shouting the bridge of "Give It Away" like it's 1991. Mark Thursday, February 4, 2027 for one of those. Red Not Chili Peppers are bringing their Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute to the Mesa Theater. The show was announced October 15.

Here's what to know. The music starts at 8pm. Tickets run $20–$25 through See Tickets. The Mesa holds about 850, so this is a sweaty, all-standing kind of show and not a seated nostalgia evening.

Tribute bands come through the Western Slope fairly often. What sets this one apart is how long it's been doing it, and how specific it is. According to the band's profile in the San Diego Reader, the group started in 2009 from a Craigslist ad in San Diego and is based in Ocean Beach, which is about as close as you can get to the Chili Peppers' own Southern California surf-and-skate world without being in Los Angeles. The following year, the band picked up a Best Tribute Band nomination at the San Diego Music Awards.

The setlist leans on a particular era. A Lake Tahoe event listing describes the John Frusciante years as the band's focus and calls *Blood Sugar Sex Magik* their "heart and soul." The same listing notes they sometimes play whole albums front to back. If your Chili Peppers are the funk-heavy, shirtless, Rick Rubin-produced ones, this band is built for you.

They've also covered a lot of ground. The band bills itself as the nation's most active Chili Peppers tribute, with shows as far away as Brazil, Mexico and Japan, according to the same listing. A 2021 interview with the Falls Church News-Press caught bassist Paul Moffat, who plays the Flea role onstage, describing the job as capturing the original band's spirit rather than trying to be a carbon copy. That interview also pointed out that the lineup has changed over the years, so the players onstage in February may not match older photos. The songs are the constant.

Less carbon copy, more spirit: that's the pitch, and on a Thursday at the Mesa it's an easy one to buy.

The Mesa Theater makes sense for a show like this. It's the downtown room where Grand Junction goes for loud, affordable nights out, with a balcony and a floor that fills up fast and a Main Street location that makes it easy to grab dinner before and a drink after. A $20 ticket in early February, when not much else is going on, is about as low-risk as live music gets.

So brush up on "Suck My Kiss," dig out the tube socks if you're feeling bold, and get there early enough to find a spot on the floor. It's a weeknight, but nobody will be in a hurry to leave.

Sources: Red Not Chili Peppers – San Diego Reader band profile (sandiegoreader.com); Red NOT Chili Peppers – Lake Tahoe Travel (laketahoetravel.com); Press Pass: Red Not Chili Peppers – Falls Church News-Press (fcnp.com); Red Not Chili Peppers at Mesa Theater – See Tickets (prod-nts-api.seeticketsusa.us)