Primus @ Austin Music Hall (11.01.2006)

Rather unexpectedly, Primus announced a Fall tour a couple months ago, to be kicked off last night in Austin TX. As any Primus fan would do, I immediately snagged my ticket and began the countdown to November 1st. For the first time in years, Primus was coming to town with absolutely no hint of what the setlist would be (the previous two tours had been highlighted by full performances of the albums Sailing The Seas Of Cheese and Frizzle Fry, respectively).

First, the opening band was called Drums And Tuba, and they were pretty interesting. It was a trio consisting of a drummer who also did the vocals (Genesis anyone?), a guitarist who looked like Fidel Castro, and a damn tuba player. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Primus opener. I was pleasantly surprised, the use of a tuba in lieu of a bass worked extremely well. The first song or two tended to be a little poppy in nature, with the vocals annoying me a little bit (he sounded like a whinier American Gavin Rossdale), but from there the songs got longer and more jammish (slightly Beta Band'ish), with some really cool rhythms and grooves coming from the tuba. The guitarist was pretty wacky, playing his guitar in all sorts of strange fashions, but he seemed to be technically pretty proficient and when he cut loose he could really shred it. The only thing that bothered me a little about them toward the end of their set was their increasing reliance on pre-recorded samples. There would be little chimes or additional guitar parts that were clearly not being performed live, as each of the three guys had their hands full with other parts at the moment. But, I won't hold it against them. Overall, probably not anything I would buy, but definitely an interesting and enjoyable opening band.

Ok, now Primus. First off, the first thing worth noting is that during the setup time between Drums And Tuba and Primus, they inflated a huge 15-20 foot tall inflatable astronaut, who then resided over the proceedings on the back right side of the stage for the rest of the night. There is really nothing more to it than that, I just simply find a 15-20 foot inflatable astronaut really cool. Anyway, the guys came out shortly after that, and proceeded through the following set:

1. To Defy The Laws Of Tradition
2. Pudding Time
3. Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers
4. Seas Of Cheese
5. Mr. Krinkle
6. Eleven (with short drum solo intro)
7. Is It Luck?
8. American Life
9. My Name Is Mud
10. Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
(Break)
11. Here Come The Bastards

In general, this was an incredibly short show by Primus standards (it took about 1.5 hours), consisting of a pretty safe song selection with really no surprises. Really, if they had thrown in "Tommy The Cat" and "Groundhog's Day", it would have pretty much been the definition of a "greatest hits" set. (Speaking of "Groundhog's Day", this is my 6th or so time seeing Primus, and I STILL have never heard that song live. GAHHHH!) But, aside from the shortness and predictability, the show was great. As always, the guys performed with gusto and never missed a beat. Larry's guitar and Les' mic were a little too soft during the first song, but they quickly got that corrected and the sound was phenomenal the rest of the way. They spent a good amount of time noodling off into the weeds during about half of the songs, but only once (during "American Life", which had to have been about 15 minutes or so) did they cross my threshold of patience. Most of the jams were pretty damn cool, with Les occasionally exploding and going crazy with some funky weirdness. He was decently chatty, like he usually is, giving little anecdotes between the songs and conversing with the crowd.

Overall, good music, good performance, good times, just a bit lacking in length and interesting song selection. But, this is the first show of the tour, so maybe this had something to do with it. Either way, it was still a good time. I'll still gonna go see these guys anytime they come to my area.