Metro Theatre, Sydney
Monday January 27, 2014 :
Wow, The Metro is PACKED for Primus tonight! I’m scrambling into the building as the band take the stage and I can’t get any closer than the very back of the left side of the pit; all the while, they just keep sending more people in. There’s two huge inflatable astronauts flanking the stage as Les Claypool and company take their instruments to task with their noted dexterity; a dark, pulsating cascade throbbing from the bass and atonal textures from guitar.
The set list takes in the full scope of the bands output, ‘My Name Is Mud’ is belligerently bruising and ‘Lee Van Cleef’ has everybody dancing to the slapped funk groove. There’s a seeming split in the crowd, with more than a few punters heckling the band to play more songs, rather than allow most of the songs played to meander into long form jams with little variety, mostly moody sonic textures. It’s the featured solos from the albums where Larry La Londe really shines on guitar and it’s the devastating grooves with an oddball humour that brought me to Primus; so the extended jams add little.
An audience member is drawn from the crowd to jam along on drums and while it’s a highlight of that guys life no doubt, it adds little musical value and I’d rather have heard “MORE SONGS!!” Claypool is in great spirits personally, telling humorous stories with warmth and his mastery of the bass can never really be under mentioned; from thundering funky slap to dirges played on stand up bass with a bow (the unsettling ‘Jillys On Smack’) and everywhere in between and beyond. A good night, a great band, just not the fireworks I wanted to see.
Reviewer: Roger Killjoy
Photographer: Terry-John Paull
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