Concert review: Primus out of obscurity with new tour

By Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner

Primus burst onto the hard rock scene in the early '90s with commercial success, but the band trickled back into obscurity because of lack of radio success and front man Les Claypool's various pet projects.

The band was unofficially broken up for three-and-a-half years while Claypool experimented with bands like Les Claypool's Frog Brigade and Oysterhead.

But they are back and for excited fans Primus once again sucks and is touring across the nation with all of its original members.

The Tour de Fromage kicked off recently in the Bay Area and came to Southern California for two shows Friday and Saturday at the beautiful Wiltern Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Playing for the first time with the original members, Claypool on bass, Tim Alexander on drums and Larry Lalonde on guitar.

The only notable song played from Primus' myriad of base driven metal was "Southbound Paciderm."

The second set by the band did not disappoint. Claypool showed off the slight of hand-on-the-bass that makes him perhaps the best rock bassist playing. At times it seem like the magician, Claypool, is not even plucking the strings because his hands moved faster than the eye can follow.

He even showed off as the master of all things bass playing an electric cello for the opening of the "Sailing the Seas of Cheese" set.

The band offered variations of the hits off the album like "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver", "Tommy the Cat" and "Is it Luck". Each song featured a long solo by one or all of the members.  A long chant of the familiar encore call of Primus sucks brought the band out for an encore of fan favorite "Too Many Puppies."

After the long hiatus, Primus is back and putting on the hard rock, bass-driven shows that made them one of the great bands of the '90s.