En route from Chi-town, me and the fellas drove out to the Eagle’s Ballroom/Rave near Marquette U for the final show of the 2 week Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade world tour….more on that in a bit.
Went up to the front and talked with Jimbo in fine form with his rig in between the front barrier and the stage. I’ve never met the guy before but it wasn’t hard picking him out � laminant hanging from his neck and telling stories from the road. After listening for a bit, I introduced myself and got a Jimbo Hug. We chatted some more before Ralph Carney hit the stage - who walked past us while we were yakin’ and I shook his hand. Little did I know at the time that I would be talking to Jimbo, the ROCK STAR…
Ralph Carney’s set was FUN FUN FUN. A LOT of sound for a electronic drum kit, a guitar built like a bass (long neck, deep bassy tone) and Carney’s bag of tricks. I think his music is genius and I admire him for putting up with the shit you get for opening up for Claypool. Hopefully this won’t be the last time I’ll be seeing the brass/wind MADman.
Oh the Frog show…right… Well let me tell you about it. It went something like this:
The stage was dark and a single light was shining down on the ol’ dual mic/bullet mic. Claypool and his fellow droogs came out all wearing black and their respective headgear. Mike D with the executioner’s mask, Paul in the derby, Kehoe in the straw cowboy hat, Skerik in the Alibaba/Ballpark Frank crown and Claypool in his Alex mask and felt hat started a familiar jam with the Virus pedal intro which lead into…
DING DANG
I love this snappy-fast version they’re doing on this numba. And of course, there are some technical difficulties with the bullet mic. I look straight down from the balcony to the soundboard where the poor guy is checking the cable patches in the back of the board. A few adjustments and…”SAY HEY LITTLE WHITETRASH, YOU AIN’T GOT NO SHOES ON”. The mic levels ranged from loud to annoying feedback. But at least we can hear the man!
MAKALASTER I
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. I’ve heard this song before and I’m fine with once more. Typical Makalaster with the crowd pumping out Yo-Ho’s even before Les gets into it. But then Makalaster changed from typical to…not so typical. First Les after talking about the Frog’s two week World tour, asks Kehozer to hold a note and Kehoe lets out a very high squeel that he lets die pretty quickly. Then Les says “it must be the drums that messed you up…” The drums stop and Kehoe busts out with an AWESOME opera short…an Italian tragedy I cannot remember the name of. It leaves Kehoe in tears… Then Les says, “I’m sure some of you have participated in this part of the song before. And technically you paid the money to get in so we can entertain you. But I think you need to be led in this part of the song because we all need some leadership once and a while. There’s a man who’s been coming out to the shows every night and his name is Jimbo. And he’s going to lead you in some Yo-ho’s….”
Now I’m thinking to myself as Jimbo is climbing up on stage and leading the crowd in some mighty-fine Yo-ho’ing…Jimbo must be feeling pretty good right about now.
WAY TO GO JIMBO!!!
But that wasn’t the end of the suprises during Makalaster. After the Yo-ho’ing, I’m grooving with the band, just waiting for Les to bust out with Southbound Pachyderm. And he starts playing a familar bass line…I recognize it…it’s not Southbound…he nods to Kehoe…Kehoe starts wailing…HOLY SHIT, THEY ARE PLAYING THE NUUUUUUUGGGGGGE. STRANGLEHOLD BABY!!!!!
“COMEON, COMEON, COMEON, COMEON, COMEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Sick, sick, sick tease…which leads into…Southbound Pachyderm. Les starts playing the beginning of the song. And right before the quick strums, he misses a note (err 3) and shuts down for a sec. “I fucked it up!!” he says. He calms everyone down and then quitely asks in the bullet mic “Isn’t awfully nice…to live in a world…” No Southbound for us…but who gives a shit? Jimbo’s Yo-ho’in + the Stranglehold tease must have been overload.
Makalaster ends and the Mike D starts pounding on the big bongo…boom-ba-boom boom…boom-ba-boom boom. Les throws on some envelope filter funk for…
BUZZARDS OF GREEN HILL
Quite honestly, I missed the Yali Tambour intro to this song. But let’s not think that Kehoe let us down. No, no, no, no, Kehoe RIPPED on this tune. I liked what they did with it..rough on the edges but still hillbilly thumpin’. Skerik had me laughing hysterically as he’s doing a leg-stomp/knee-slap and acting like he had some chaw in his mouth.
LONG IN THE TOOTH
Gotta love the Tooth. Especially when Ralph Carney comes out to play his fucked up wind instrument…a double clarinet split down the middle or something to that effect. And you’ve really gotta love Tooth when you get a RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL tease!!
PRECIPITATION
Rainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrainrain…
A first for your’s truly…and I LOVED IT. I just can’t get enough of that arco distortion…
POLKA YOUR EYE OUT?
Kehoe sang and directed Mike D and Skerik in their sick solo jams. Les just played the upright and kept to himself on this very strange song…
HIGHBALL WITH THE DEVIL
Slow and dark groove, just how I like my Highball With The Devil served up. This of course leads into…
DRUMS
Crazy drum solo which started with Skerik coming up and joining Mike D � then Les replacing Paul on the drums and Paul, Mike D, Skerik and Kehoe doing some mad percussion. I definitely caught a My Name Is Mud tease…
Claypool comes out from the drum kit and the band assumes their positions to go back into…no…wait…
HAIR
Les’ rig somehow loses power…but gets it turned back on. We Want The Funk! LOVED IT!!! Les solos with madness while picking up a brief Tommy tease. And somehow they managed to bring it back into…
HIGHBALL WITH THE DEVIL
Lights go down…Virus pedal provides the eerie background bass track…Space helmet goes on…
LIGHTS IN THE SKY
Kehoe is busting out with some trippy stylings and Skerik is doing some weird hushing noise on his sax mic…another first for your’s truly. It was a nice jam but the mic feedback was annoying as fuck. The virus pedal continues into…
COSMIC HIGHWAY
Great song…and great light effects by the way. Killer closer…I’ll take Cosmic any day of the week and twice on Sunday…but once is fine. The boys left the stage and stayed off for a bit until the tension was high enough.
They come back on and Les is sporting the….how do you say….ahh yes…Rainbow Bass. Kehoe starts playing a trippy intro into…
GRANNY’S LITTLE YARD GNOME
I can’t begin to describe how much I love the Rainbow’s bottom end. This sound he gets on this song gives me wood. I LOVED this live…another first for me. Trippy/rock’ed verse/chorus switch backs, I can’t wait to hear the boot. Except Les stopped before “I saw a Calico” to comment on some couple making out in the crowd. That was sweet…
And then the oh so familiar Boomerang loop…which kicked off
D’s DINER
Maltedbuttermilkpancakesalldaylong. Crazy 6 string solo…how does Les do that shit!!???
And that was it…the last Frog Brigade show of the Summer 2003 World Tour.
All in all a good show. The best show on the tour? Probably not. Things I wished had been different? The technical difficulties and the asshole-meathead staff at the venue. Kinda harshed my mellow…
And my wishful thinking had me hoping for an appearance from Antipasta on his day off. Oh well…
I’m glad I made it out to this tour though - I’m expecting that the Frogs aren’t going to be doing much for the rest of the year. Jimbo’s got a good thing going on and I hope it continues with whatever Claypool maybe up to. And I know there’s some good stuff coming for the old timers around here…Monday, Tuesday, Happy Days!
kb.
I was just listening to Urge Overkill - Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon