Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 1, 1993 TAG: 9311010016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Short
One doesn't go to a Primus concert expecting to hear light melodies and high-brow lyrics.
Primus' idea of a light melody is an ode to an ol' diamondback sturgeon swimming along and unfortunate enough to get a fishhook stuck in its snout.
One goes to hear Primus in all its strangeness.
Primus, on Halloween, with snow outside - that's almost too much.
But that was the case Sunday night when the band, featuring bassist Les Claypool and his concoction of musical whackedness, played at Radford University's Dedmon Center.
They didn't disappoint the crowd, which was bereft of much Halloween garb but wore plenty of grunge-conscious flannel.
The crowd bobbed, bounced and slammed together as excitedly as carbonation bubbles in a can of Pork Soda (the band's latest album.)
With Tim "Herb" Alexander screeching his buzzsaw - or did it sound like an amplified kazoo? - guitar, Claypool rumbling on his bass and Larry LaLonde pounding the drums, the San Francisco act got genuinely weird.
They played "My Name Is Mud," "The Air Is Getting Slippery" and "Those Damned BlueCollar Tweakers" among other songs that are part of the sound probably best summed up in the lyrics of "Mr. Krinkle:"
"It's a cross between Jimi Hendrix, Bocephus, Cher and JamesBrown. It's called `Heavy Hometown.' "
Oh yeah, the Melvins, the unsung-godfathers of grunge, influencers of Nirvana and other Seattle bands, opened up. Sorry, they were mostly boring.
But that's not difficult when you're trying to open for Primus.
by CNB