Primus makes a stop in Edmonton on their “Tribute To Kings” tour, featuring the band covering Rush’s classic 1977 album “A Farewell To Kings” in it’s entirety.
When you’re a band that has always played by your own rules, some things don’t change – and that is no exception for Primus. The California Trio kicked off their 46-date tour April 15, and will see it through to June 25th. This is the second leg of the tour, the first being a 42-date run from August to October 2021.
Claypool & Co. brought an interesting format for this tour, playing 2 sets; the first being a full Primus set, which included classics such as “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”, “My Name is Mud” and “Fisticuffs” – the second set being a tribute to iconic Canadian prog masters, Rush; Playing the entire 6-song, 37-minute opus “A Farewell To Kings”.
Openers for the evening were Vancouver’s Black Mountain, a psychedelic/space rock outfit formed in 2004. They were a great fit for the show, eclectic, yet groovy, with very progressive elements. Fun band to watch!
The stage featured a huge video wall behind the band, which played trippy, weird, and neat clips and patterns, and sometimes clips from the music video for the song being played. The video for the first two songs was based off the internet video sensation Salad Fingers, which brought me much delight, as I am a fan of the dark, haunting, and strangely brilliant animated series. Poor front lighting drew your eyes to the video screen and away from the band, which was not really ideal for photos, but I made it work.
Primus left the stage after their first set while “Zelensky: The Man With The Iron Balls” played over the P.A., then a sign that said “Be Right Back”. When they returned, Primus guitarist Larry “Ler” Lalonde stood with an acoustic guitar and started the opening intro to “A Farewell To Kings”. “Closer to the Heart” was phenomenal. They did such a killer job on the Rush tunes, with bassist Les Claypool at one point joking about how hard it was to hit Geddy Lee’s vocals. The band finished up with an encore of two more originals, capping off nearly two hours of play time.
The band was flawless, insanely tight, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Much better front lighting in the second set made for some really cool photos, and Les Claypool’s outfit change and (bass) guitar changes made for a bit more variety in the photos. If you get a chance to catch them before the end of this run, it’s totally worth it. Check out the gallery below!
Setlist: Here
