In another life, Flea might have bypassed all the fame and glory of rock music. He might have stuck to playing the trumpet, which he first picked up as a kid, and become one of our modern jazz greats, jumping around the late-night club circuit in New York’s Greenwich Village or New Orleans and working on retrospectives of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.
On Thursday night at Thalia Hall, the Red Hot Chili Peppers founding member and bassist performed as if that was always his storyline.
Chicago was the kickoff of the musician’s anticipated “Honora” tour, in support of the total about-face album he released in March that presents a sweeping and defiant journey into the jazz ambitions that were always lurking in his bones.
As the story goes, Flea’s stepdad was the jazz musician Walter Urban Jr., who filled the young talent’s mind with ideas as he watched Urban Jr. and friends improv in the living room. Flea soon took up trumpet and would have continued on that path, if not for meeting Hillel Slovak, who invited him to join in his new L.A. rock band on bass. But as Flea, born Michael Peter Balzary, approached his 60th birthday a few years ago, he wanted to reexamine his first instrument, and played it religiously every day for two years as an exercise in commitment to his dream long deferred.
That hard work paid off as Flea, stoic and humble, was masterful on stage Thursday — even if he was admittedly nervous about playing in public.
“You know, I’ve played a lot of f—— concerts in my life. But never in my life have I ever done anything like this, and to be honest, it scares the f—— s— out of me,” he told the sold-out room bubbling with excitement at the rare occasion to see a giant hallmark of their youth in such a different light. “Making my little record and people caring about this thing, it’s been a very vulnerable experience for me. Thank you for caring. … And if I f—– up, I’m sorry. … It’s our first-ever concert.”
If he did miss a step, no one would have ever known. From the first notes of the opener, an unreleased track called “Good Night Darius,” Flea was on the mark and in lockstep with his incredible four-piece Honora Band that he hailed as his “teachers” in the craft: drummer Deantoni Parks, bassist Anna Butterss, guitarist Jeff Parker (from Chicago’s own Tortoise) and saxophonist/keyboardist/musical director Josh Johnson, who produced the album.
The trumpeter portion of that first track was a profound first impression, a solemn arrangement that called to mind the gravitas of “Taps,” which Flea delivered with incredible emotion. It would’ve gotten a standing ovation, if we weren’t already standing.
Seeing Flea with such poise was a mind trip and a 180 for anyone who has seen him hold up the rhythm section in RHCP the past 40-odd years. There were no moments of “Californication,” no aggressive bass slapping, no monkey-footing around the stage. Hell, he even wore a shirt — with a blazer over it. Granted, he did play a lot of bass as he switched between strings and brass, but even that was delivered with a great deal of composure.
There were moments of levity, too, that brought forth his goofball personality. At the top of “Traffic Lights,” Flea grooved to the rhythm with wild body movement. The mid-section of the set also offered pre-filmed video snippets that filled a large screen behind the band, showing Flea galloping and cartwheeling through fields of grass or playing with his dogs at the beach, feeling like cutting-room floor material from one of his Gus Van Sant films. It could’ve been his handiwork, too, as the director shot some of the promo photos for “Honora.”
As the band whipped through nearly all tracks of the album over 90 minutes, as well as a second unreleased song called “Shred of Hope,” it was a largely instrumental affair that volleyed between sultry overtones on “Wichita Lineman” (a Jimmy Webb cover) to the dark and brooding “Frailed” to hints of funk on “Free As I Want to Be” and a fuzzy breakdown on Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” with lots of improv on each — two songs took nearly 20 minutes.
The album features guest vocals from Nick Cave and Thom Yorke on two tracks (both were absent, of course), but Flea’s spoken word mantra on “A Plea” filled in the gaps and stood out as the true highlight of the night. On it, the musician begged for peace and love and quoted Dr. Martin Luther King when declaring “only love can drive out darkness.”
It was a heartfelt message that hearkened to how the night began, with John Lennon’s “Imagine” serving as intro music, and came full circle when Flea performed his more straightforward track “Lovelovelove” (from the 2012 “Helen Burns” EP to benefit his Silverlake Conservatory of Music school) in the encore. He introduced it with a question: “If death is beautiful then how beautiful is life and how much is it to be treasured every moment?” Happily moving into his jazz era, Flea has found the answer.
Set list for Flea and the Honora Band May 7, 2026, show at Thalia Hall
Good Night Darius
Traffic Lights
Shred of Hope
Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb cover)
Frailed
Morning Cry
Golden Wingship / A Plea
Free As I Want To Be
Thinkin Bout You (Frank Ocean cover)
Maggot Brain (Funkadelic cover)
Encore
Lovelovelove