Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade

by Bob Masucci.

House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA. February 21, 2001.


Opening act, Drums and Tuba were awesome. All instrumental. One guy playing the tuba (and occasionally the kazoo or trumpet), a guitarist playing thru some crazy effects and occasionally playing a standup guitar, and a drummer. The music was fantastic. If it weren't for the huge line at the merchandise stand I would have bought their disc. they played about 45 minutes.

Colonel Claypool and Frog Brigade took the stage at just about 9pm. It was a huge lineup and I think the band must have had a competition among themselves on who could look the strangest. The drummer was wearing what looked like a white karate outfit and sort of a viking helmet; one guitarist was wearing a costume that looked right out of star trek; the other guitarist had longass dreadlocks and was wearing this strange black and yellow ex-metalhead outfit which was cut off around his shins to reveal his white sneakers; the keyboardist looked just like bob cat golthwait with a big tophat, shades, and trenchcoat; the sax player had this long blue coat (really looked like a bed spread wrapped around him) and this giant white afro wig with the hair in the middle of the wig pulled together and painted yellow to form a big yellow spike; and Les was wearing a blue revolutionary war jacket (with gold shoulderpad tassle things) and light brown on the rest of the uniform.. complete with the lttle bib thing they wear.. and of course.. sneakers and.. like the last time i saw Primus, his biker helmet.

Musically, as expected, it was mostly a big jam session. The first song was 15 minutes long and amazing the whole way. Second song of the night? Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band..only with a Les twist and lyrics and redone as, "Colonel Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade".. too funny. very well done too. The band even went into "A Little Help From My Friends." Despite me being familiar with all of Primus, Sausage, and the Holy Mackerel CD, I only knew about half the songs. It really wasn't important to know any of the music, as the majority of the show was a fantastic jams session. Of the rest of the songs, most were songs from the Holy Mackerel album or cover songs (maybe the whole show was cover songs for all I know). They only played one Primus song.. "Harold of the Rocks": the perfect jam out tune which ended the show. "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver" was sort of played; well, not really: basically Les just drummed one string on the biker helmet.

Musically, as expected, it was mostly a big jam session. The first song was 15 minutes long and amazing the whole way. Second song of the night? Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band..only with a Les twist and lyrics and redone as, "Colonel Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade".. too funny. very well done too. The band even went into "A Little Help From My Friends." Despite me being familiar with all of Primus, Sausage, and the Holy Mackerel CD, I only knew about half the songs. It really wasn't important to know any of the music, as the majority of the show was a fantastic jams session. Of the rest of the songs, most were songs from the Holy Mackerel album or cover songs (maybe the whole show was cover songs for all I know). They only played one Primus song.. "Harold of the Rocks": the perfect jam out tune which ended the show. "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver" was sort of played; well, not really: basically Les just drummed one string on the bass and spoke about half the lyrics in one straight breath.. real real fast. so... it wasn't the song at all. just the lyrics. very amusing.

A major musical highlight had to be when Les brought out the standup fretless electric bass for "Calling Kyle." To add to the oddity, Les donned his mask to play this song (if you haven't seen it, his mask is an odd cross between pinnochio, a pig, and the phantom of the opera. creepy looking). Between the mask, the creepy sound of Les playing the upright with his boe, and the song itself, it was a very eerie, yet incredible song to hear played. Another highlight was his playing part of Cygnus X-1 (an old rush tune.... it opens with some babbling about spaceships and I think I was one of the few who knew what song was about to be played after hearing that intro.. sure enough, the main Cygnus bassline came in a second later).. and the other big moment: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." Amazing. The crowd went wild when the guitarist, out of nowhere, played that opening signature lick. Les sang the whole song and there were a few jamout minutes between each verse.

All told it was a great show. I didn't stay for headling act "Galactic". I almost wish I stayed to see Galactic only see how they could have possibly followed up the performance Les and the guys put on. Les and the Brigade played for an hour and 45 minutes. I had a great spot about 10' from the stage and the crowd was very mellow, and very appreciative of the jam session going on at House of Blues The crowd seemed to enjoy the show and there was very little moshing going on; it wasn't the wild pit area that I've been around other times I've seen Primus.

As far performances go, Les claypool live is truly amazing to watch. If there is a "must see" act in music, its Primus. I've seen Rush my share of times, but with Rush the band sticks more to the album and doesn't come close to the jam out stage show that Les and the guys put on (reminds me of the Allman Brothers). The amazing thing about Les is how effortlessly he seems to play. I've recently started to learn bass (after having played guitar for four or five years) and I can't help but watch in awe at the sheer speed he plays (not to mention his ability to conjure up amazing bassline after bassline time and time again). Every song is an adventure.


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