Primus @ Metro City
w/ The Dean Ween Group
Friday, 13 April 2018
Primus is one of those bands that you either completely get… or you just don’t. There doesn’t seem to be any ‘inbetween fans’ out there. They are weird, wacky and some of their songs have even had true fans asking WTF the first time they saw them on Rage, so it was good to see so many people that got it on Friday night at Metro City.
The Dean Ween Group was really the only logical choice to open the night’s festivities and they played With My Own Hands (Ween), Mercedes Benz, I Was Nothing (Ween) and It’s Gonna Be A Long Night (Ween). Back in the day, Ween was one of those bands that you either got… or you absolutely hated and this reviewer definitely leaned towards the latter so expectations on The Dean Ween Group were low for yours truly.
“We don’t have much time so I won’t talk too much.” Dean Ween told the audience. “Last time we were here was about 10 years ago.”
“We are gonna bring out a special guest. The one with the bass – Mr Les Claypool!” Ween said as they shared a private joke on stage. “That probably doesn’t make any sense to you.” he laughed. “This is called The Mollusk!”
They finished up the night with Dickie Betts, A Tear For Eddie (Ween) and Sunset Over Belmar. For someone who wasn’t a fan of Ween, The Dean Ween Group is actually pretty amazing. They were entertaining and put on an excellent show and the audience was getting right into their performance.
A mixture of excitement, trepidation and almost fear was hovering over the audience as everyone waited for Primus to come out on stage for their first headline tour here in years. Once they came out, any trepidation dissipated and the energy in Metro City was high, opening with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers, Last Salmon Man and Too Many Puppies.
We also got the classic Wynona ‘s Big Brown Beaver, new song The Seven, American Life and Jilly’s On Smack. “We are so very excited to be playing in Perth.” Claypool drawled. “I’ve got this farty smell coming from over here. Normally I wouldn’t say anything but it’s fucking awful so hurry up and lay that egg!” He disappeared off stage momentarily and came back wearing the infamous pig mask before teasing the audience with an instrumental of Kashmir. When they finally broke out into Mr Krinkle, you could feel the energy of the crowd triple.
They finished their set with The Storm, My Name Is Mud and Harold Of The Rocks before walking off stage. For their encore, they left us with John The Fisherman. With the average age of everyone at Metro City that night being over 30, those there will understand just how special it is seeing someone perform songs that you grew up with and songs that you never thought you would ever get the opportunity to see live.
Someone asked why we thought that Primus was good and it’s because they were (and still are) so different to what was going around at the time. It is because they weren’t afraid to go against the norm; to BE weird. They gave a voice to those of us that didn’t fit in and that is one of the reasons that so many people still love Primus. That… and musically they are fucking brilliant.
Words and pics by
KAREN LOWE
