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Farewell show: Primus wraps up North American tour in Vail

Colorado shows included a reuniting of Rush on stage at Red Rocks

Les Claypool of Primus leads an energetic performance at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail on Aug 13, 2022.
John-Ryan Lockman/ShowLove Media

Primus wrapped up their North American Tour in Vail on Saturday in an hours-long set that included the entire Rush “Farewell to Kings” album bookended by many of the group’s own songs.

A few days earlier, Primus had helped to bring together Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, a legendary moment as it was the first time the two had performed together on stage since Rush drummer Neil Peart died in January of 2020.

In Vail, Primus frontman Les Claypool told the crowd what a dream come true it was to see Rush back together, and how the 14-year-old version of himself would have never believed he would grow up to play on stage with them.



Claypool told the Vail crowd he was a Rush “fanatic” in his youth, and the band’s “Hemispheres” tour show in the San Fransisco Bay Area was the very first rock concert he attended in his life. Claypool quizzed the crowd at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, asking if anyone in attendance also saw a show from that tour, before dismissing some of the younger attendees as being too young for the “Hemispheres” tour of 1978.

Primus played two nights in Vail to close out their North American tour.
JohnRyan Lockman/ShowLove Media

“Hemispheres” came out after “A Farewell to Kings,” and it was the latter which made Claypool love the band enough to see them live on the Hemispheres tour. Later, Primus would open for Rush on tour in the 1990s.

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Claypool said just as he thought he was getting good at singing Rush songs, he heard Geddy Lee himself again at Red Rocks and was reminded how easy Lee makes it look. Lee and Lifeson, along with South Park co-creator Matt Stone on drums, played “Closer to the Heart” on August 11.

Claypool said Stone didn’t realize Rush would be there and thought he’d only be playing with Primus.

“So for the past three months we’ve been doing this ‘Tribute to Kings’ thing, a tribute to our good friends over here, and so we thought we’d pop out and see Matt and Trey, because they got this little celebration, and so I said how about we do ‘Closer to the Heart,’ because that’s a good old tune to do, and I said Matt you gotta play drums, and he said ‘I don’t know,’ and I’ve been pushing him and pushing him to play this thing, because he had no idea we were dropping this on him,” Claypool said.

In Vail, Claypool asked the audience to sing along to “Closer to the Heart” to help the show reach Geddy Lee levels.

“If anybody has those pipes, help me out tonight,” he said.

Several fans lit lighters, as was customary at Rush shows during “Closer to the Heart.”

Claypool said Saturday’s performance of “Farewell to Kings” in Vail was Primus’ last performance of the album in North America. Claypool told the crowd in Vail he had enjoyed their summer tour, and that the group had fun during their two nights in Vail, with guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde riding the Forest Flyer coaster on Vail Mountain.

Claypool, LaLonde and drummer Tim Alexander played a robust set in Vail to close out their tour, playing another 90 minutes of their own music in addition to the 38-minute “A Farewell to Kings” album on Saturday. Primus started around 8:30 p.m. and played until nearly 11 p.m.

Claypool described a bit of Primus’ 2017 album “The Desaturating Seven,” which is inspired by the 1978 children’s book “The Rainbow Goblins” by Italian author and artist Ui de Rico. Claypool told the crowd in Vail he used to read the book to his kids.

Fans also got to hear the band play “Conspiranoia” from the new EP “Conspiranoid,” which came out in April. At nearly 12 minutes long, the song is particularly well suited to live shows, where Claypool is known to zone out in front of a horse head on a mic stand during his mesmerizing moments on the bass. Fans were treated to a few of those moments in Vail as Claypool was characteristically able to make himself sound like he’s playing bass guitar, rhythm guitar and drums at the same time from the slap, strum and tap combinations that give Primus its signature sound.

And for Primus and Rush fans who are into live shows, Claypool shared a bit of trivia, saying that Rush never actually played the song “Madrigal” live. Claypool even cited his sources – the 2019 book “Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth: The Official Touring History,” along with his own interview material.

“I’ve never seen them play this song and there’s no mention of this song on any of the set lists,” Claypool said. ‘So I asked Geddy – what about ‘Madrigal,’ did you guys ever play it?’ And he was like ‘No we never played that.’ So you get to hear it from us, right here.”

Primus’ “A Tribute to Kings” tour will head to South America next, playing Santiago, Chile, in November.


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