Music lovers across from several genres showed up at Riverbend last evening to experience the groovy tunes of prog/funk/alt/rock giants, Primus. The crowd gathered in anticipation for the show to start and as the lights dropped, Danny Elfman’s clown theme from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure began to play pumping the crowd even further. Soon the familiar opening notes of Too Many Puppies began and the crowd roared.  

After the first song ended Primus front man Les Claypool addressed the crowd about his love of Cincinnati’s music history and specifically for his hero and one of his very own musical inspirations, Bootsy Collins. Much to everyone’s surprise he followed this up by bringing Bootsy on stage. Bootsy and a group representing King Records managed to surprise Les with a note from the Mayor of Cincinnati proclaiming June 12th as Les Claypool Day. Wow! Claypool was surprised and touched by this and urged the crowd to do what they can do help restore the legendary King Records.

For many this was a tough act to follow but Primus succeeded in flying colors launching immediately into Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver. Plenty of new material was played as well as the band played their newly released concept album, The Desaturating Seven in full. Visually, the stage was set in a darker tone for the new album with giant LED screens showing plenty of rainbows of colors, goblins and cuts from their music videos. 

Ending the set with a mash up of My name is Mud/Jerry was a Racecar Driver, Primus left the fans and Cincinnati hungry for more. 

Come back anytime Les.