"You should never meet your heroes" or so the saying goes. By now I was going to lots of gigs and was over-joyed to learn that Primus were playing in Bradford. The venue was downstairs at the Queen's Hall (I'm not even sure that it's still open) which had all the charm of the bar from Star Wars, and was a perfect enviornment to see various scuzzy metal bands.
My friends and I were hanging out at the bar, trying to look cool and nursing our pints of cider when we spotted the guitarist from Primus looking puzzled at an arcade machine. My freinds and I looked at each other, not quite believing that one of our idols was standing right next to us. We were a little bit awe-struck. Until we realised he was kinda stoned and couldn't figure out how to work the machine and was just standing there slightly hypnotised by the flashing lights. And then we realised that our idol had feet of clay...
Primus were often lumped in with funk metal, mainly because they had a very bass driven sound, but in reality were a lot more weird than that. Their songs often featured strange characters inhabiting weird worlds. They had a lot more in common with Tom Waits than Red Hot Chili Peppers (and Tom Waits would guest on their 'big' hit single Tommy The Cat')
They also seem to be a love-or-hate-them band, probably due in part to Les Claypool's idiosyncratic voice and strange lyrical subject matter. Also, they sounded a world away from bands like Iron Maiden, Slayer and Metallica. Maybe I was getting kind of bored with metal, but what would take it's place?
No comments:
Post a Comment