by Matt
Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas, NV. November 15, 1997.
Being the oh-so-great rock n roll town that Las Vegas is, I was pretty excited leading up to the show b/c I figured that there'd only be 300 people or so and we'd have primus to ourselves. There was absolutely no promo or ads for this show, even on the radio.
So, as our small army drove to the hard rock, we worked on a dime bag, narrowly passing many a cop car on the way. As we pulled into the hard rock we noted the amount of cars present, and the line leading to the joint. It went on forever. I've been to 14,000 ticket concerts with lines this long. We weren't the only people stoned out of our minds, not to my surprise.
Opening band Powerman 5000 was great. I personally don't like this rap-spin approach lotsa metal bands are taking (see clutch, korn, limp bizkit, etc.) but live, they came off as regular balls out rock n roll. Other than a drummer, they had a cool "percussionist" that was soooo fuckin' cool.
Las Vegas is not known for music appreciation as a hostile crowd seemed disinterested.
Then limp bizkit came on. I've only heard one song from them that I really disliked. OH-MY-GOD. They were amazing live. I'd say up to that point, they were the best band i'd ever seen in my 15 months living in Las Vegas. They had an insane DJ that was headbanging to the point I thought he hit his table countless times. Bad ass bassist. Oh wow. They also covered Ministry which caught my attention.
The friendly Las Vegas crowd was restless by the end of their set and they were booed the entire time they were taking down their equipment. Some bitch next to me yelled "fuck you" over and over and over to the closest roadie until he was gone. Annoying as hell. I nearly punched her right there.
This was my first primus show, and so when they came out, I was a little excited. I'm blind as fuck, but Les seemed well shaven, had pretty much a short neat haircut and goatee. I think I remember him wearing tight sunglasses and a beret or a beret-like hat. I'm literally on the brink of blindness, so if anyone else was at the show and has something else to say, fuck off.
I've just been getting into primus not too many weeks before I bought the ticket (how convenient) so didn't reckognize the openign song, but it was very memorable. Les spent the non-singing parts running around in a circle like a deer (I think he was playing a nady wireless for the bass, so no wires to trip over). Ler was pretty inactive but still was an intense stage presence. Les didn't move much after that, but he kicked his leg out occasionally.
After the 2nd song, Les told the crowd "please do not throw anything on stage. When you do that, we fear for our well being and we shorten the show by taking songs off the setlist. And when that happens, people get mad, and you, my friend, will become sodomized by pissed off people in the crowd. So do not throw anything on stage that does not resemble a bag of weed."
Les didn't talk much between songs. It was a hostile crowd (people go to shows to heckle and heckle only in Las Vegas). The only other thing Les said was "about a year and a half ago, we had a real popular song called 'Wynonas Big Brown Beaver'." And the crowd went nuts. Then Les retorted "I hate that fuckin song". Then the crowd went really wild. "We're gonna play a song not many people have heard so this ones called 'My name is mud'". Very very intense! Mosh pits a gogo.
"Mud" was probably the funnest part of the show, but I thought, musically, "Southbound Pacyderm" was impressive. Brain's drum solo was very cool.