Courtesy Photo Primus
Rush Job
ories of the tour that you’d like to share?
On its latest tour, quirk-rock band Primus is covering Rush’s entire A Farewell to Kings album BY MIKE MCMAHAN
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t’s an admirable goal in music to be true to yourself, and Primus has consistently done over a nearly four-decade run. The band’s sound is difficult to characterize but easy to recognize. Formed in the San Francisco area in the mid-’80s, Primus coalesced around oddball bassist and frontman Les Claypool to deliver a heady mix of funk, metal and prog. As a result of its varied influences, the trio’s hard-to-pigeonhole sound has allowed it to straddle multiple scenes and genres. That includes not just the alt-rock scene — Primus grabbed the headlining spot on Lollapalooza 1993 — but also prog and metal tours. The band has opened for anyone from Anthrax to Tool to Public Enemy. Claypool has also collaborated with members of the jamband scene, most notably Phish’s Trey Anastasio, with whom he formed
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the supergroup Oysterhead. Each member of Primus brings his own set of musical influences to the party, and they don’t overlap much, save for one band: Rush. So, it makes sense that the group — which toured with the Canadian power trio in the early ’90s — is currently performing A Farewell to Kings in its entirety. The A Tribute to Kings tour includes not just Rush’s classic 1977 album in its entirety but also a full set of Primus originals. It stops at San Antonio’s Majestic Theatre on Saturday, April 16 with Battles in the opening slot. We caught up with Les Claypool on Zoom to talk about the tour, Primus’ history and his love of all things Rush.
Primus played San Antonio in 1991, opening for Rush on the Roll The Bones tour. Do you have any memories of the San Antonio gig or mem-
Well, there are many memories of the Roll the Bones tour. I am one of those guys that’s afflicted with I-don’t-remember-anything-about-specific-venues-or-places. Whereas [Primus guitarist] Larry LaLonde could tell you what was on the deli tray and where we went to lunch that afternoon. He remembers every little detail. I do not. Tours tend to be a big blur to me. That being said, here we were young whippersnappers that were meeting our high school heroes, and befriending them, and going out and playing with them. It was a pretty spectacular time of our lives. My first concert ever was Rush Hemispheres, and I was 14. I drank three warm Lowenbraus and threw up in the parking lot of the Cow Palace. Bought a bootleg ticket for too much money even though the show wasn’t sold out, but I was too dumb to know. I remember years later I had that T-shirt from high school from that show. I wore it to one of the gigs. I’m wearing it down the hall and I’m showing Alex [Lifeson, Rush’s guitarist]. He looks at me and he goes, “it’s a bootleg!”
What’s the hardest song from Fare-
well To Kings to pull off live?
It’s hard to say, because it’s Rush — it’s all hard. One of the hardest ones is “Madrigal,” because it’s not very Rushlike. You have to kind of switch gears. It’s this pretty little song. I have the big book they put out a couple of years ago with all the tours and setlists. There’s no “Madrigal” on any of the setlists. So, I asked [Rush bassist] Geddy [Lee], “Did you guys ever play that song?” and he goes “I don’t think we ever did.” So, I don’t think they ever played that song live. That being said, the toughest one — purely from an athletic standpoint, and logistics — is “Xanadu.” I have to wear that giant-ass double-neck. And I have to go between that and keyboards and guitar. It’s a juggler. The thing about all these songs is even though it was a lot of work prepping for it, more rehearsal than Primus has ever done ever, in the history of our band, it was a great bonding thing for us, because we haven’t done that since we were kids. It was “let’s write some songs, record ‘em, learn ‘em, let’s go on tour.” Whereas this, we had to get together a lot. And hang out a lot. And play a lot, not just jam and go get some steaks and wine. So, it was a great bonding thing. And we’re gonna do it again next week be-
