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 Les Claypool |
 Tim Fite |
 Les Claypool |
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Story and photos by Matt Schwenke Les Claypool, touring with saxophonist Skerik, percussionist Mike Dillon and drummer Paulo Baldi, opened with "Buzzard of Green Hill" from his Frog Brigade days, before trucking through "Rumble of the Diesel" from his 2006 solo album Of Whales and Woe, "Fisticuffs" from The Brown Album days of Primus and "Coattails of a Dead Man," a rare, if not first-ever, live offering from the Antipop days of Primus and delivered by Claypool on an electric upright.Though Claypool seemed a bit irritated at a few points in the show-- cigarette smoke being puffed his way inspired a brief pleading to send a different kind of smoke his way if he had to inhale smoke, since... "It's not scientific. For girls, smoking cigarettes makes your vagina smell like beef jerky, and guys, it makes your penis shrink up like accordion-style," and Claypool later stopped the opening of "Of Whales and Woe" to scold a fan who gave him the "finger"-- he still playfully changed between his ever-growing assortment of masks and musical styles. But besides the brief aversions, Claypool and company still delivered tasteful covers of UK ska band Madness' "One Step Beyond" and seemingly all parts of Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" to end the set. Other notables from the set included a fiery Skerik on sax in "Fisticuffs" and an extended drum jam with Dillon, who switched between an assortment of percussion instruments, and Baldi, who delivered double bass drum thumpings that would make any heavy metal drummer blush. Shockingly good and different in another sort of genre mish-mash, Tim Fite, who performs with his brother Greg in a sort of indie version of Gnarls Barkley, opened the evening and drew a mix of counfounded, wide-eyed stares and instant acceptance to his scathing exploration of society through music and narrated drawings. Taking the literal pen name of "The Gentleman with Itchy Legs" in his drawings, which included an eye exam and the children's story "JoJo and Bobb stab a motherfucker," Tim Fite inserted graphic arts between his possessed southern preacher/country howl in "I Hope Yer There" from the 2005 release Gone Ain't Gone, which Greg samples from records that cost $1 or less, his hip hop stylings in "It's All Right Here," which featured scrolling boxes of cereal on the screen and Tim mimicking a robot scanning a credit card, and his Beastie Boys-like antics in "Burn It Down." It became a crowd-rousing anthem. Remarking after the show that playing a venue with a barricade was new to them, Tim and Greg surprised the audience by greeting them in the pit before their show and selling CD's/autographing items in it afterwards. The duo's dissolution of the barrier between performing musician and fan was refreshing alone, and with an assault of art in varied forms that makes a wondrous collage, Tim Fite's next album Fair Ain't Fair, expected to be released in May 2008, should mark the arrival of one of the most intriguing acts in some time. |
 Les Claypool |
 Tim Fite |
 Les Claypool |
 Tim Fite |
 Tim Fite |