Red Hot Chili Peppers - Woodstock 1994 (Live) (2019)

Organised to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock festival of 1969, Woodstock 94 (or Mudstock as it was later sometimes referred to) was promoted as '2 More Days of Peace and Music' The poster used to promote the first concert was revised to feature two birds perched on a guitar neck, instead of the original single bird design. The 1994 concert was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, August 13 and 14, with a third day (Friday, August 12) added later. The weather was rainy that weekend, and by Saturday much of the field had turned into mud. The event took place on Winston Farm in Saugerties, New York, about 100 miles north of New York City. The site is 10 miles from Woodstock, New York and it was originally proposed as the location for the 1969 concert. The crowd was estimated at 350,000. The size of the crowd was larger than concert organizers had planned for and by the second night many of the event policies were logistically unenforceable. Red Hot Chili Peppers played the penultimate spot on the site s North Stage on the Saturday night (Peter Gabriel headlined), the first gig the band would play with new guitarist Dave Navarro, formerly with Jane s Addiction. They opened their set wearing enormous light bulb costumes attached precariously to chrome metallic suits, making it near-impossible for them to play their instruments. Navarro hated the idea but went with it. The performance saw the debut of new songs such as 'Warped', 'Aeroplane', and 'Pea' although the songs were in the beginning stages and the lyrics were very different from the final versions. The group s performance at Woodstock 94 was a huge success and catapulted the Chili Peppers into a different league of popularity and record sales, And while their period with Navarro as guitarist was not to last and the one album they recorded with him was far from their finest, it was the period of Woodstock 94 that resulted in RHCP becoming a household name and one of the most respected and commercially successful US rock bands of all time.