Always a treat to hear bass savant Claypool and his collection of like- minded freaks airing their formative musical laundry on the line. Billed as “the hunt for green October tour”, the band wowed the capacity audience on this Saturday night. Band consisted of Claypool, Sean (Ono) Lennon guitar, Harry Waters keys, Skerik saxophones, Mike Dillon percussion (mainly marimba), and Paulo Baldi drums. There can be no opening act, as Claypool has reached a point in his career where greedy control of the entire evening is necessary. Let’s jump in, first set starts with the sadly topical cover When Johnny Comes Marching Home, David Makalaster (pt 1 and 2), One Step Beyond (Prince Buster or Madness cover, depending on your age) and ended with Cricket and The Genie from the Claypool-Lennon Delirium sessions. Being sired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono has some obvious pluses. Sean is an odd duck, skilled guitarist with whiffs of rock and avant garde royalty, his upbringing must have been a swirl of weed, paparazzi, limos, and absentee famous parents cut short by tragedy. At one point he pulled out the Frampton vocal treater. Set two starts with a Skerik-less full reading of the entire Pink Floyd Animals record. Many an hour has been spent poring over this late 70s masterpiece and the band didn’t disappoint. Waters is also music royalty, being the Hammond organ playing son of Floyd founder Roger, his Brit-lilt hit the vocal sweet spot for this section. Set two barreled on with some selections from Claypool’s vast back catalog, Precipitation, Calling Kyle, and Highball With The Devil allowed all players to shine. Dillon has been part of this troupe for a while and seemed like he got a marimba for his birthday and didn’t want to give it up. I don’t know much of drummer Baldi, but the vetting to be timekeeper for this funk-metal-prog behemoth must have been intense. Set two ends with One Better that includes a tasty Rappers Delight tease. The encore was fabulous, starting with a propulsive cover of The English Beat’s Mirror in The Bathroom into Whamola and ended with the Willy Wonka staple Pure Imagination for which Claypool scored one of the many reincarnations. Must be nice to be the village weirdo, attract other village weirdos, making a living onstage being…….an assemblage of village weirdos.
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