I spent a perfect night with Primus in Waite Park on Friday night. That’s something I never thought I’d say, but I’m thankful for it all the same.
Les Claypool shouldn’t need an introduction; he ought to be a household name. But if you don’t know, Claypool is the eccentric uncle of rock and roll and an absolute legend on the bass. Primus is one of Claypool’s many musical ventures and without question his most famous.
If you grew up in the 90’s, it would have been difficult to miss Primus in some shape or form. They were everywhere and even broke through to mainstream every once in a while with songs like, “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver” and “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.”
But Primus never felt like it was geared for commercial success. That seemed to be considered a side effect by the band, rather than an achievement.
So how does that translate to a live performance decades later? In a word, it translates well. In three words? Pretty darn well. They sounded crisp and sharp, like they wanted to be on stage, playing together. That’s not always a given for bands with long histories that include break-ups.
This was a perfect summer night, where a steamy sunset led to a perfect temperature at dusk with a breeze so good it felt designed. If there was such a thing as a weather vending machine, I’d expect this when ordering a high-end summer evening.
The Ledge Amphitheater is a really nice venue in a style that is sorely lacking in the Twin Cities. I will say that there is a lot of concrete at this place. But it’s built on a granite quarry, so it’s not as if they covered up a bunch of grass with the concrete. There were permanent bathrooms near the entrance, as well as side-stage for VIP’s, with a supplement of portable biffies at the end of a lane of food trucks. I appreciate when a venue takes a more festival-minded approach and outsources food options like this.
But Ben, you might be wondering, what about the other two bands that played the show? What about Too Many Zooz or Coheed & Cambria?
My day job did what it often does and took up more space than it should have, so I missed the window to shoot both opening acts.
Its a shame that C&C didn’t do much in the way of banter, because there is a lot of material in a rock quarry for a rock band with a specific type of rock in their name. But if they were that kind of band, who knows, they may not be playing with Primus all these years later.
When it comes to seeing older bands with your fondest memories tied to their early material, it can be difficult to give the room they need to play from their entire catalog. It wasn’t as if I was waiting for their only hit, but I did get a little antsy to hear material that was more than twenty years old.
When they (finally) dropped “My Name is Mud,” I learned I was very much not alone. Seats emptied, fists pumped in the air, and the crowd noise amped up significantly. The band responded in kind and it felt like they fed off the energy, adding a bit of power to their playing.
It took a little bit to get there, but once we were all in that happy place, in that perfect weather and in such a nice venue, I couldn’t really think of a better place to be.
