Primus concert review

by Wolfgang Faber.

Babylon, Munich, Germany. July 2, 1997.


Because Primus didn't come to Vienna (at least for now), I went to Munich to see them. The venue they played at is called Babylon, which is located in 'Kunstpark Ost', a former industrial area converted into a cultural center with lots of bars, concert halls, discos etc.

The opening band was '311' (obviously a German band), and well... they were really crappy if you ask me. They consist of three men: drummer, bassist, guitarist, the latter two also sing. They played some trash style rock, which wouldn't have been that bad, if they took themselves less seriously. The audience laughed at them at several incidents. So much for that.

In the break when the stage was ready for Primus, some people started 'Primus sucks' chants and, I don't know whether it was coincidence or not, just then the lights went out and Primus came onto the stage. Brain was first and immediately started off a little solo, leading straight into "John the Fisherman". Here's the playlist (This is from a list which was sticked onto the stage floor, thanks to Christoph Mack for persistently shouting at the crew until they gave it to us.):

The first encore was Tommy the Cat. The second encore was Here Come the Bastards.

Now, since I didn't listen to anything of 'The Brown Album' before, there's no guarantee that they really played the songs listed here.

Who knows what 'Shout at the Devil' is?

They played something in the middle of 'Too Many Puppies', I guess this must be it.

Again they didn't play anything from 'Tales from the Punchbowl'.

It was a great concert. Although Brain's drumming differs considerably from Herb's it somehow fits into the old songs as well. I like this, it made them sound a bit differently. Brain also did a short, but fine solo (can't remember when that was). To sum that up, I'm pleased with Brain. Ah yes: the drum lighting was great! The drum kit was not as impressive as Herb's, Brain had just one hanging tom, a thing which I usually don't like, but I must say, he really compensated for that. The drums were transparent and in different colors (green and red at least, reminds me of a kit John Bonham played once). Ah yes, Brain wore a hat all the time, although it was awful hot in there. I wonder if he has to hide something beneath it.

Ler was quiet as usual, but -surprise to me- he had a microphone in front of him and he actually used it for singing (I didn't hear him nevertheless).

Les really looks weird with that beard! He mostly played the 6 and 4 string fretted basses, except for Sailing and Falls, where he used the electric upright. I didn't see the 'rainbow bass'.

Sadly, there wasn't any extravaganza (well maybe the 'Shout at the Devil' thing), and they seemed a bit tired (it was the last European concert so this is understandable).

The crowd was kind of mixed: In the beginning I stood in the back among people who didn't even move to the music. Later I spent some time in the mosh pit, but there were several guys who didn't do anything but hit and kick others. I hate that. Finally I moved to the mosh pit's edge where the people jumped and danced and sang.

One word to the merchandise: It was damn expensive! They had two sorts of brown t-shirts, one with a band's photo on the back, one which had a 'Back in Brown' print on the back. They also had one white t-shirt with the band's logo on the front side. Those shirts were between 45 and 50 DM, which is about 40 US$ (just an estimate). A sticker and a cap were also available.


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