Red Hot Chili Peppers played “Organic Anti-Beat Box Band” and “Blackeyed Blonde” live for the first time since 2000 on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, a benefit for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s 25th anniversary. They also played “Nevermind” with John Frusciante for the first time since 1992.
All three songs come from the band’s first years with founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, who died in 1988: “Blackeyed Blonde” and “Nevermind” from 1985’s Freaky Styley, “Organic Anti-Beat Box Band” from 1987’s The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The lineup was Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith, with Chris Warren listed as an additional musician by the fan-run RHCP Live Archive. It was the band’s first show since the LA FireAid benefit in January 2025, Stereogum reported.
Which songs had gone unplayed for 26 years?
Two, not three. The headlines disagree on the size of the gap (Stereogum says 26 years, NME says “decades”), and the setlist explains why. Setlist.fm marks both “Organic Anti-Beat Box Band” and “Blackeyed Blonde” as the first performance since 2000, which is where the 26 comes from. “Nevermind” is the outlier: the band last played it in 2019, but setlist.fm notes Saturday was its first performance with Frusciante since 1992, a 34-year gap for this lineup.
| Song | Album | First played (setlist.fm) | Last played before Oct 17, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organic Anti-Beat Box Band | The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) | Oct 12, 1985 | 2000 |
| Blackeyed Blonde | Freaky Styley (1985) | Aug 11, 1984 | 2000 |
| Nevermind | Freaky Styley (1985) | Mar 4, 1983 | 2019 (with Frusciante: 1992) |
These are not obscurities in the band’s own history. As of October 2026, setlist.fm credits the Chili Peppers with 155 logged performances of “Organic Anti-Beat Box Band,” 133 of “Blackeyed Blonde” and 140 of “Nevermind.” These were working songs in the band’s sets for years, not one-night curiosities, which makes the long silence the story.
What else was in the 51-minute set?
Stereogum counted 11 songs in 51 minutes. The rest leaned on the hits and the 2022 records: an opening jam, “Can’t Stop,” “Black Summer,” “Whatchu Thinkin’,” “Hey,” “Eddie” and a closing “Give It Away.” Frusciante took a solo turn on the Shirelles hit “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”, written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin and unplayed by the band since 2007, according to setlist.fm.
The timing has a context. NME tied the early-catalog turn to this year’s Netflix documentary about Slovak, a film the band kept at a creative distance while agreeing to be interviewed for it. NME also reported that the band sold its recorded music catalog to Warner Music Group in May for more than $300 million. Whatever the reason, the old songs came out at a charity show with no album or tour attached, the same instinct for setlist surprises that marked Bob Dylan’s Oslo opener.
A benefit with no tour attached is where a stadium band can afford to play the songs from its club years.
What is the Silverlake Conservatory of Music?
The school’s own site says it was founded in 2001 by “longtime friends and musicians Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary and Keith ‘Tree’ Barry,” with their friend Peter Weiss, after severe cutbacks to arts education in Los Angeles public schools. It grants scholarships to children who qualify, “providing free lessons and instruments,” and has run out of a 1930s brick building on Hollywood Boulevard with 13 lesson studios since October 2016.
Comedian Marc Maron hosted the night, and the bill included Vince Staples and Dave Grohl, whose set became a surprise Foo Fighters set when the rest of his band joined him, per Stereogum. No fundraising total had been published as of October 19, 2026, and none of the coverage mentioned new Chili Peppers music or tour dates.
Like Miley’s “Jolene” at the Hollywood Bowl, it was a Los Angeles night where one setlist choice became the news. A 1985 album track unplayed since 2000 came back for one room, on one night, for a school.