Brandon Kelly

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went out to lunch at a local bar. A couple drinks in, Lisa’s face lit up, and showed me her phone.

It was a StubHub ad for a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, happening in Portland on December 20.

Neither of us had seen RHCP before, and they’re one of our favorite bands, so we had to go. I opened StubHub on my phone and searched for the show, but nothing came up in the results. So Lisa shared the ad with me, and that worked. (StubHub must have some search keyword indexing issues.)

As if seeing the Chili Peppers wasn’t exciting enough, they were going to play at a smaller venue called Revolution Hall. We were going to get a more intimate show! It almost felt too good to be true.

Ticket prices were pretty cheap too. So we called the kids to gauge interest. They were on board, so we went ahead and bought five tickets. We could hardly wait.

“We can’t drink at lunch anymore,” my wife told me the next day, with a somewhat somber look on her face.

“Why not?”

“We aren’t going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We’re seeing the Red Not Chili Peppers.”

Omg.

I checked StubHub. She was right. And suddenly everything made so much more sense. StubHub wasn’t showing any results for the Red Hot Chili Peppers because they weren’t playing; a RHCP tribute band was.

StubHub doesn’t offer refunds, so our options were:

1. Resell as many of the tickets as we could, and eat the cost of the ones that don’t sell.
2. Just go to the concert anyway.

December 20th happened to be the kids’ first day of winter break, and a trip to Portland could be a fun way to kickstart it, so we decided to go and just make the most of it.

The concert was an absolute blast. The band sounded great, and they played an amazing set with tons of hits:

1. Can’t Stop
2. Dani California
3. Suck My Kiss
4. By the Way
5. Scar Tissue
6. Around the world
7. Sikamikanico (from Wayne’s World)
8. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie
9. The Power of Equality
10. If You Have to Ask
11. Higher Ground
12. Snow (Hey-Oh)
13. Otherside
14. Under the Bridge
15. Give it Away

Their singer was especially hilarious—very nerdy with a couple good dance moves.

The band is on tour right now. If you like the Chili Peppers and happen to live in a city they’re coming to, check them out.