Primus – May 15th – Fox Theatre

Photos by Jim Mimna

“Hello! We are Primus and we suck” was the start to one hell of a night at the Fox Theatre.  The band is currently touring with the original lineup and playing with the balls I remember them having when I first saw them back in the early 90’s. This night was all I could have hoped for as a life long Primus fan; the setting was intimate and the sound was great.  The setlist was 90% old school, yet they played very few of the tunes fair-weather fans might expect like “Jerry was a Race Car Driver.”  Instead they played some of my favorite deep cuts like “Frizzle Fry,” “Pudding Time,” “Here Come the Bastards,” “Groundhog’s Day,” “American Life,” “Spaghetti Western” and even “Bob.”  The few new songs were well placed and played with Claypool’s wonderful weird twisted flare – I was floored.  Claypool was engaged all night as he solicited audience interaction and told great anecdotal stories.  He taught us the value of LSD to avoid a fight, and remarked on some of the old school t-shirts he saw in the audience, “Your mother must be proud” he told one fanatic in the front row.  The one song I wanted to hear over all others, “Tommy the Cat” (on the 6 string fretless none the less), was 2nd set closer, and the perfect finale only to be out done by “The Too Many Puppies” encore.  I know I will never see this band in a venue that small again – so happy to be “born into American Life…”