I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2021] Primus [rescheduled from June 19, 2020; and July 10, 2021]

Three years ago I saw Primus for the first time in 30 some years.  The show was featuring their then new EP The Desaturated Seven.   So, it wasn’t the ideal way to catch up with them, since they spent a lot of time playing that EP in its entirety.  The rest of the set was a mix of songs, with a bunch of songs from Pork Soda and some of their “hits.”  I was a little annoyed by the crowd at the show (when did tough guys start liking Primus?).  And in my post I wrote

Maybe in 2020 they’ll be back for a big two set career-capping tour.

Interestingly, they did come back in 2020, with a two-set show, but rather than career capping, it included a cover of the album A Farewell to Kings by Rush.  If I was there only for Primus, I’d have been annoyed at losing 40 minutes to another band.  However, A Farewell to Kings is one of my favorite albums of all time and knowing how Primus feels about Rush, I knew that this would be an amazing experience.  The show had been postponed a few times but finally, October 1 arrived and I headed to the Met in Philly.

The show was supposed to start at 7, so once again, I left from work and arrived quite early.  Early enough to get one of the night’s posters.  But boy was it ugly.  I didn’t want it on my wall, so I passed (there have been some really nice posters this tour, so I was bummed about ours).  Then I stood by the fence and waited with some remarkably loud and rather unpleasant characters.

In my head, Primus is for oddballs who like weird music.  But clearly they have struck a nerve with an unexpected crowd–people I would never hang out with intentionally.  So that sucked.  But once they got their nonsense out of their system after a few songs, people settled down and just enjoyed the music.

I asked someone at the show if the sets were different every night and he said that Primus always mixed up their setlists so it was worth seeing them a bunch of nights in a row.  Indeed, the night after ours, they played several songs that I would have really liked to hear–although our set was pretty great too.

The band came out to a Danny Elfman song and started playing “Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers.”  This comes from Sailing the Seas of Cheese, an album I really like, so I thought things would be quite excellent.  I guess the other punters in the audience either really like the older Primus as well, or they just dug the heavy sound because they immediately started moshing around.  The song segued into “Laquer Head” and back to “Tweekers.”  Then they jumped to “Too Many Puppies” which they’d started with when I saw them last time.  Like last time, they also segued it into “Sgt Baker.”  These stomping songs really got the crowd moving and even though I like these songs I had to get situated far from the roiling crowd.

They played a song I didn’t recognize, Antipop’s “Eclectic Electric” (a record I don’t know that well).  I enjoyed the trippy visuals, but I was much more excited when that song ended and they started “Is It Luck?”  This is one of my favorite Primus songs and it was outstanding to hear it live.  Les told us that they had been practicing the Rush album so much that they had forgotten to practice Primus songs.  So they were digging through the old material and they found that gem.  They followed it with a song I have always loved (it is in 11/4 time): “Eleven.”  What a treat to get that oddball song–and it’s really hard to pogo to.

I’ve never really liked “Jilly’s on Smack” even if its intentions are good, but I was pretty tickled to hear the opening song from Tales from the Punchbowl, “Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats” which they had started to play when I saw them last time, but that time they segued it right into “My Name is Mud.”  This time they jammed the whole thing and followed it with “Shake Hands with Beef” one of the more absurd songs that they’ve released as a single and one which is a ton of fun to hear live.

The band left with the screen showing a giant: we’ll be right back.

I don’t know if people left or moved or just got drinks, but the crowd thinned somewhat for Set 2, which was great.  I managed to get a bit closer (right in front of Ler).  And when he came out on stage there was an acoustic guitar on a stand waiting for him.  He played the opening to “A Farewell to Kings” on the acoustic guitar and Les came out on stage with a classic Rickenbacker bass wearing a flowing kimono.  It was perfect.

The big loud moments came after the intro and it sounded amazing–absolutely spot on.  I was blown away.  The only thing that surprised me was that Les sang in a lower octave that I imagined.  Les’ voice is pretty high when he sings but I guess even he can’t compete with 1970s Geddy Lee, so he didn’t even try.

“Xandau” was just wonderful.  One of my favorite Rush songs being played live, sounding great, and the guitars right in front of me.  Ler and Les were no sporting retro double neck guitars.  Ler played those wicked 70s guitar solos like they were nothing.  It was heaven.

The album flipped, Les introduced “Closer to the Heart” telling us how much he loved seeing Rush live when he was a kid.  He told everyone to sing along if they knew he words but if you’re a Rush fan and you don’t know the words, what the hell’s wrong with you?

I was tickled that they played “Cinderella Man.” It’s a mellow song with a wicked guitar solo.  It turns out Rush did play it live back n the day.  Unlike “Madrigal.”  “Madrigal” is a weird acoustic song from Rush.  It’s 2 and a half minutes and seems like total filler (the crowd didn’t seem to enjoy this one).  I’ve always had a soft spot for it because it seems so out of place.  And it did my heart go to know that this song was played live a few dozen times this year.

Then came the insanity of “Cygnus X-1.”  The visuals were great with Ler playing guitar beneath a giant Rocinante space ship on a the screen behind him.  The weird time signatures were perfect, the drums were amazing. (I haven’t mentioned Tim Alexander mostly because I never really saw him for the whole show, he was buried behind a massive drum kit  But he was amazing and did Neil Peart proud).  Les even sort of tried to hit the crazy high note at the end of the song.

It was exhausting being that happy for that long.

The band walked off while Ler played the closing guitar strains.

And soon enough they came back for an encore.  Last time the encore was one song.  This time it was six!

In addition to the fun of “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver,” they played three songs from Frizzle Fry (the album that I think of as the quintessential Primus album), including “Spegeti Western” that weird (well they’re all weird) song that fills the end of the album.  And they played “Tommy the Cat,” the song that my friend Al introduced the band to me with.  So that was awesome.

Finally they ended with Southbound Pachyderm.  When they stared the song someone behind me shouted “Thank you, God,” which I thought was weird, But whatever.  The song sounded great and they jammed that mother out for a good ten minutes.  It was exhausting and wonderful.

If they play the Met again, I think next time I’ll go for seats and avoid the moshers.  It would probably sound better too.

 

2021	2018
Clown Dream [Danny Elfman taped intro]	Too Many Puppies ƒ
SET 1	Sgt. Baker ≅
Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers ≅	Last Salmon Man Ψ
Lacquer Head  (Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers Reprise) ⊗	The Heckler §
Too Many Puppies ƒ	Southbound Pachyderm ©
Sgt. Baker (Too Many Puppies Reprise) ≅	The Desaturating Seven set
Eclectic Electric ⊗	-The Valley 7
Is It Luck? (tour debut) ≅	-The Seven 7
Eleven ≅	-The Trek 7
Jilly’s on Smack Ψ	-The Scheme 7
Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats ©	-The Dream 7
Shake Hands With Beef ß	-The Storm 7
SET 2 (A FAREWELL TO KINGS)	-The Ends? 7
A Farewell to Kings [RUSH]	Nature Boy ¶
Xanadu [RUSH]	Welcome to This World ¶
Closer to the Heart [RUSH]	My Name Is Mud ¶ (preceded by ““Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats” tease)
Cinderella Man [RUSH]	Jerry Was a Race Car Driver ≅ (from “Dog will hunt”) ≅
Madrigal [RUSH]	ENCORE
Cygnus X-1 [RUSH]	John the Fisherman ƒ
ENCORE
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver (Bob intro) ≅
The Toys Go Winding Down ƒ
Pudding Time ƒ
Tommy the Cat ≅
Spegetti Western ƒ
Southbound Pachyderm (with extended ending jam) ©

RUSH-A Farewell to Kings (1977)
§ = Suck on This (1989)
ƒ = Frizzle Fry (1990)
≅ = Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)
¶ = Pork Soda (1993)
© = Tales from the Punchbowl (1995)
ß = Brown Album (1997)
⊗ = Antipop (1999)
Ψ = Green Naugahyde (2011)
7 = The Desaturating Seven (2017)