Nov 05 1991 @ Madison Civic Center Madison, WI

I've finally gotten around to writing a review of the Primus/Fishbone show I saw last week Tuesday in Madison, WI. About time, eh?

My brother and I got there about ten minutes early. This is the same theater that sported the Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers not too long ago. That night, they had an unofficial addition to the warm-up bands, and I never did catch their name. Unfortunately, whoever books these bands seems to like to do that, since there was another unannounced band that went on before Primus. Even more unfortunate-- it was some thrash/rap colition, again with a name I didn't catch. They ranted and raved for a good half hour, while I walked around in the lobby after ten minutes of it. To quote Charlie Brown, "bleh." Rating: * out of *****

Primus took the stage amid a howl of cheers, and launched into "To Defy the Laws of Tradition." The sound was extremely good, except for a rather low vocal mix. It was very hard to make out Les's somewhat-less-than-serious lyrics, and even his banter in between tunes was nearly missed a couple of times. I knew I was in for a good time, though, as he claimed after the first tune, "Hi, we're Primus, and we're here to bore you to tears."

Les played his Carl Thompson piccalo bass like a man possessed. I think he's got nearly every major right hand technique down, sans picking. Plucking, tapping, slapping, sliding, hammering, pounding, strumming, you name it, he can do it in such a mean groove it'll make the furniture dance. Les had an extended solo piece in the middle of, I think, "Frizzle Fry," which was quite fun to watch and hard to imagine duplicating. He brought out the six string fretless for "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver," along with one or two other tunes I can't remember. It looked like he was going through Mesa Boogie cabinets and heads, but I'm not sure. Les himself was dressed in half-height boots, knickers, some sort of shirt, and a backwards cap. I swear, he looked like Heidi of the Alps. The way he sort of strutted around on stage made it seem like he was playing country or something. Just a very odd person, no doubt. Les also added a section, as Erik once noted, from Rush's "Cygnus X-1" into the middle of one of their own tunes. It seemed like a few people understood what he was doing, but the majority of the crowd had no clue.

Larry and Tim (Herb) were not too shabby as well. I swear, Herb has more drums surrounding him than Neil Peart ever had! Looks like at least two kits, judging by the slightly different coloring on some of the toms. Watching Larry play gave me a slightly new insight into his playing style, as it's rather discordant by nature, but fun to look at. For one of the songs ("Puddin' Time," I think) he makes extensive use of strumming behind the nut for a rather tinny, bellish sound.

Perhaps my favorite Les quote of the night occured after the house lights went on during a tune. There was quite a contingent of moshing/body passing/stage diving going on up front, although there wasn't much room due to the theater seat layout. Les is trying to figure out why they've got the lights on, and then he's called back to talk to a rather official-looking dude off-stage. He comes back with, "Apparently they're going to keep the house lights on until you people go back to your seats." He gave a queer look, and then, "I don't understand, you look perfectly normal to me. Perhaps it's George Bush day or something?" followed by a roomful of laughter. They bounced into another song, the people stayed in front, and eventually the lights got turned off. :)

Primus was brought back for one encore, during which they did their hit single, "John the Fisherman" ... quite well, I might add. Overall, a top-notch show for us Primus fans. Rating: ***** out of *****

Fishbone took the stage after a brief intro a la a recording of the "Tonight Show" theme. Fishbone is one of the more energetic bands I've ever seen, constantly moving around in as much stage as they can get. They have, what is it, 7 guys in the band, so stage room is at a premium. They opened with "Bonin' in the Boneyard," one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the sound was much worse for these guys than for Primus, no doubt at least partly cause by the addition of many more instruments. Consequently, I could hardly hear John Norwood Fisher, except in his twangy popping style he's got.

Which brings me to John. It appears he was playing a Warwick bass of some sort through SWR cabinets, but couldn't catch the amplification. He did have quite a rack of lights, though, along with Les. One thing that's always amazed me is how John can play that well with his bass slung that low. Gosh, he could scratch his knees between notes if he wanted to. However, he does have a somewhat modified slap style, and his right hand resembles a guitarist without a pick. His main slap riff appeared to be a quick alternation between his first finger and his thumb with machine gun-like rapidity like so: f-t-f-t-f-t Interesting. It's gotten me to try doing it, and it's not all that easy if you haven't tried it. With some practice, however...

Fishbone casualities included one keyboard and almost a trombone. They started the show with three keyboards on stages: two in racks, and the other on a stand with heavy cable running to it. This way the keyboardist, whose name escapes me, could throw it around, a lot like I've seen in Jesus Jones videos. Well, somewhere in the middle of the show it got knocked over *hard* onto the floor, effectively ending its life for that show. It was very humorous, however, watching the roadie attempt to get the thing working again, finally giving up, taking it off the stand, grabbing one of the ones in the rack and duct taping it to the stand. For a few horn parts, the keyboard player (wish I could remember his name) played trombone, after the roadie threw it at him in a grand arc across the stage. After he was done, he'd lob it back to the roadie, and I think it grazed the floor once. My brother and I had a running bet going to see if the thing would survive the next horn break. The horns were also extremely loud in the mix-- somewhat annoying.

Overall, a fine show, even if the sound was a little off. For an entire tune, the lead singer-type dude (really should learn those names) first stage-dove into the crowd, and then made his rounds in the entire lower seating section, getting people up and dancing if they weren't. It was like a Blues Brothers concert gone semi-punk. Towards the end of the song, he body-passed himself to the front and up on stage, losing his pants along the way. That'll teach him not to wear underwear and use loose suspenders!

I must say, I had a great time. Rating **** out of *****

================================================= Kevin Tipple University of Wisconsin - Platteville Bitnet: ucskrt [at] uwplatt.bitnet Platteville, Wisconsin USA Internet: ucskrt [at] uwplatt.edu

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