Live Review: Primus, Dean Ween Group

Two long-haired dudes suspiciously coming outta the Dog's Bar ladies toilet cubicle are later spotted at Palais Theatre and it has to be said there are many altered eyeballs in attendance.

Dean Ween Group are already on stage when we enter the theatre and Dean Ween (actual name Mickey Melchiondo), is in the finest of form, introducing With My Own Bare Hands with an admission: "I jerk off a lot." The band's rendition of this song is all sludgy guitars and hi-hats, and Melchiondo sure has some crazy guitar face going on. "This is from the new record... What the fuck! Who cares?" Melchiondo chuckles. The triple-axe attack up there is devastatingly awesome and you've just gotta clock Melchiondo sniffing his pointer finger from hand to tip during Fingerbangin' to truly understand the gross-out factor. The slinky saunter of Mercedes Benz is a set highlight and the crowd goes wild when Primus bassist Les Claypool joins them on stage for the final two songs, including set closer The Mollusk. Scattered audience members rise to their feet to give The Dean Ween Group a standing O and Melchiondo points out to his bandmates in mock surprise, "Hey, they like it! They like it!"

There's lots of beards and unwashed hair milling about the foyer and there are so few ladies in the house that there's no female dunny queue at intermission! The merch queue is even longer than the bar queue (a mate actually queues for 40 minutes for a poster, fortunately scoring the third-last one).

Back inside the auditorium, the house lights dim and we notice five strip screens hanging across the back of the stage. Primus kick off with Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers with its opening riff that calls to mind a siren punctuated by shards of light flashing on and off to the beat. There's a horse head mask on a mic stand upstage. Visuals alternate between menacing crows and animated critters with stoner eyeballs. Onscreen animation is largely pulled from accompanying video clips throughout the show. All trippers present must be well stoked with the Wynona's Big Brown Beaver visuals: those bizarre cowboys wearing masks and with Leggo-man hair having shoot-outs and playing cards!

These musicians' musicians are perfection from the get-go, but Claypool's vocals are unfortunately drowned out by a muddy mix. "This is the final night of our Australian adventure... and I did not anticipate that people would be sitting down," Claypool chastises and all immediately rise even though it's not exactly dancing music, but more sounds to accompany standing and gawking open-mouthed. Yep, Claypool's most certainly slappin' da bass up there! All three members of this San Franciscan outfit boast mad skills and metronomic precision playing as perfectly demonstrated during Too Many Puppies. Claypool then dons that trademark pig mask to play upright bass and the music of Primus evokes doomsday prophecies.

When the band leave the stage after their main set, the audience choose an interesting encore chant: "Pri-mus sucks!" The band return to the stage and present Southbound Pachyderm with Melchiondo joining them for extra guitar wizardry. We're hypnotised by the visuals of elephants bouncing and doing tricks as if they're on trampolines.

The house lights come up and there's a sense of disappointment in the air. They didn't play Tommy The Cat, but they always play that song! Another super-fan points out Primus didn't include any songs from Antipop or Brown Album, before adding that current drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander didn't play on those two, but still...