September 30, 2025 – Primus and Me

It took me a bit to figure out what to write for today’s entry. I was completely stumped at first, so I started randomly scrolling through my photo library to look for some inspiration. I then remembered that it was Les Claypool’s birthday yesterday, and then realized that I hadn’t written anything about Primus yet on this blog, so here it goes.

Primus were my best musical discovery of 2024, and it happened completely by accident. Then again, some of the best things happen by accident, like the invention of the potato chip. I was a few weeks into my first solo cross-country road trip I had thrown together in less than two weeks. That left a ton of room open for spontaneity. I was staying with my friend Dylan in Denver, CO, when I came home after an afternoon of sightseeing to find everyone gathered in the living room and listening to an album called “Pork Soda.” I only caught the last two or three tracks, and didn’t think much of it again for the rest of my time there. A week and a half or so later, while driving down the highway in Omaha, NE, I noticed a digital billboard advertising Primus at the Astro Amphitheater with Coheed and Cambria, a show that was just a few days away. With not much to lose and all the time in the world, I decided to splurge for what would be the first of several Lucky Bastard VIP experiences. I’ve been to many of these standing-room-only shows and know that there’s no place I’d rather be for such a show than right up front. I’m far too short to be anywhere else, and I knew getting VIP would be my best bet at making sure that happened.

I sat in on that first Q&A in La Vista, NE, not knowing a thing about the three guys seated before me, other than little tidbits of trivia, like that they wrote the South Park theme music, and that they had toured with Rush long ago. But I was struck by the experience of watching them interact with their fans. I’ve been to lots of these Q&A experiences between bands and fans, and usually, it’s more or less like a cattle call. Fan asks question, artist gives the answer, then it’s on to the next person. Here it was different. It was more like a Q&Brief-chat with the band. Besides answering the fan’s question, the answerer (usually Les), would ask a follow-up question to the fan, turning each encounter into a mini conversation, something I’d never seen a band do before. Already, they’d made an impression on me, and I hadn’t even heard a note of their music.

To keep it brief, I was hooked from the very beginning of their set. The time signatures, the thundering bass lines, the guitar riffs, and the funny lyrics all hit all the right notes for me. It’s not easy to tell how much I’ll like one of these on-a-whim shows, but on rare occasion, I end up more than impressed. So much so, that this ended up being the first of three Primus concerts I saw on my road trip, because, as luck would have it, they were moving in the same direction as me. I caught them again in Pittsburgh and in Richmond, VA throughout August. I had originally planned to arrive in Pittsburgh the day after their scheduled show there, so I backed it up a day early, giving myself plenty of time to drive there from Cleveland, OH and get a hotel just down the street from the venue. Richmond was not originally in my itinerary, but it was on the way and fit well into my travel schedule, and that second show just made me all the more eager to see them again. By then, I had all of their albums and had become well acquainted with their music during the long hours of driving. 2025 marks my first full year as a Primus fan, and I’m happy to say that I’ve now been to 7 total shows and look forward to seeing them again for their New Year’s Even run in Oakland. Primus sucks!