Musicians have had all sorts of ways of dealing with audience members who pay more attention to their phones than to the stage performance. Disturbed’s Dave Draiman called out one texting fan, and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor slapped a smartphone right out of one attendee’s hands.
Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer came up with his own method. During the group’s recent show in Torino, Italy, Klinghoffer was so fed up with the audience’s use of cellphones that he decided to take a video of them with his phone rather than play his solo to the group’s hit “Californication.”
The moment comes about 3:30 into the video, below.
A Reddit user who saw the Chili Peppers in London recently said the crowd at that show was “horrific.”
“People literally filming every song, hardly anyone jumping or dancing out... And tbh, most of the people near me were actually there to see Babymetal by the looks of it.
“The biggest cheer RHCP got was went Anthony took his shirt off for fuck sake, and it’s such a shame because the band played so fucking well and pulled out exciting shit like ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Right on Time.’ Keep in mind I couldn’t really see what was going on behind me, but it looked like there was more movement from the seated areas than the floor during ‘Give It Away’ as well.”
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