Live Report: Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 3 Arena, Dublin

Having fostered an intimate relationship with their Irish audience, the idea of a nine-month postponement seemed unbearable for any Red Hot Chili Peppers fan on these shores. So, as they took to the stage to the tune of a solo bassoon, the feeling of euphoric relief let itself be known before even the first note was struck.

Starting with a short introductory jam, almost as a warm up, once Anthony Keidis finally stomped up to the mic, while his bandmates laced into the frantic opening chords of ‘All Around the World’, the room exploded from all angles.

Leaning heavily on their post 2000’s repertoire initially, with the likes of ‘The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie’ and ‘Snow (Hey Oh)’ prompting many to raise their lighters within the first twenty minutes, the only real lag came halfway through a cover of Iggy and the Stooges’ ‘Search and Destroy’. Wild at first, with Keidis certainly pulling off Iggy Pop’s spasmodic dancing, the song seemed to stumble as it failed to capture the original's violent climax. Still, what momentum they lost was quickly salvaged as they flew into ‘Tell Me Baby’, followed by a penetrating rendition of ‘Suck My Kiss’.

If there was any real error on the band’s part, it was how they underestimated the intensity of the crowd before them. To say that the cheering was loud would be to do it an injustice. By the encore, this roar was cacophonous. Everything set the audience off, from the drumbeat to U2's 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' to Flea's occasional non-sequitir statements, such as "poached eggs in the morning with salmon and sourdough bread". Everything warranted a cheer, even a call to turn up the bass levels a little bit.

Casual banter was not a concept any ticket holder was familiar with. When Keidis and Flea decided to joke about using their best Irish accents, the latter’s decision to sing the opening lines of ‘Amhran na bFiann’ quickly ended up being one big beautiful mistake.

“That’s all I know”, he admitted, before being met by the national anthem sung back at him in its entirety. Increasing in volume, clearly the band assumed it would subside after a few seconds so they could begin ‘The Zephyr Song’, but it didn't. The anthem was treated like the alphabet when you are trying to locate a specific letter. All of it has to be sung. That's just the way it is.

Unquestionably a great live band more than capable of executing with ease incredibly complex ideas spontaneously while gyrating like apes, still in the end, it was the crowd who made this show into a thrilling experience. Even after it became clear that 'Under the Bridge' had been excluded from the set, the brief disappointment was made up for as segments of the crowd sang it anyway, while many more chanted ‘Seven Nation Army’, ‘Ole Ole’ and of course, the national anthem.