When Primus mastermind Les Claypool and the only son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to form a band the results were out of this world. Being a Primus fan I already worshipped the bass playing of Les Claypool but was completely unfamiliar with Sean Lennon except in namesake. I do not remember exactly how I came to hear about this collaboration but do remember talking with Wayne about them to which he stated Sean sounds exactly like John did. I missed the duo’s last San Diego appearance in late December so when I caught wind of them rolling back through to promote their second album South of Reality and play the Music Box on a Friday I was ecstatic. It is not very often that I get to see a band that I have not previously seen and I had only been to the Music Box one other time way back when it was called Anthology.
After having a couple beers with Wayne and his friend at the nearby Crack Shack I ate the couple gummies I brought with me as we walked over to the venue. Once inside we grabbed a beer and headed upstairs to watch the opener Particle Kid from the side of the stage. The singer/guitar player had good energy but the music was completely foreign to me. To be fair it is rare that an opening band knocks my socks off which is why I am always trying to time my appearance to purposely miss the opener altogether.
As soon as Particle Kid went off we made our way down to stake a claim on the floor in front of the stage so we could get the full effect of the Lennon Claypool Delirium. We thought we were in good position but the crowd was filled with GIANTS and by the time we realized their existence all around us the floor was too full to move somewhere else without blatantly bulldozing people. I am 6’1” and there were several people in the crowd that had to be at least 6’8”. Ridiculous. This happened to be the weekend of Comic Con but save for a guy that looked like he was wearing a giant fork and a guy with lightning bolt glasses a la Aladdin Sane Bowie this did not appear to be the same crowd as Comic Con. All in all it was a good, respectful crowd as hardly anyone was on their phones. A novel idea I know, right? Come to a concert to actually watch the concert?!?
The Claypool Lennon Delirium achieved something that not every band can: presence. The four piece played in front of a trippy moving background of outer space, which was very fitting for the music they were playing. Backed by a hard hitting, top hat-wearing drummer that rocked Lemmy’s facial hair motif and a top hat wearing keyboardist, the chemistry between Sean and Les was undeniable. There was good banter between “Shiner” and “Kernel” and it was really special when they were both singing and acting the part of co-frontman. Sean wore a dark yacht captain style hat and demonstrated monster guitar wizardry on the same chrome Jaguar-type guitar throughout. Les was being Les and makes me question everything I think I know about how a bass guitar can sound each time I see him. Playing some kind of electric stand up bass with a violin bow at one point did not do much to change this.
The Music Box only holds about 700 people and those in attendance would probably all agree on how fantastic the show was. Les made a comment at one point about how great the sound was for them up on stage and about how this set was longer than usual for them – clocking in at 1 hour 45 minutes+, which explains why they laced their set with covers. From the opening cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” I thought that this is what it would sound like if John Lennon had been the singer of Pink Floyd. Sean’s voice did sound eerily similar to John, which was on full display during the closing cover of the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” despite his vocals being bathed in effects. It was at this point at midnight that I turned into a pumpkin so I could get home to wake at 5:30 for a 7:20 flight and missed the encore of Primus’ “Southbound Pachyderm.” Damn!
SETLIST: Astronomy Domine, Cricket and the Genie (Movement I, The Delirium), Cricket and the Genie (Movement II, Oratorio Di Cricket), Little Fishes, Blood and Rockets: Movement I, Saga of Jack Parsons – Movement II, Too the Moon, South of Reality, The Court of the Crimson King, Breath of a Salesman, Boriska, Easily Charmed by Fools, Cosmic Highway, Boris the Spider, Cricket Chronicles Revisited: Part 1, Ask Your Doctor – Part 2, Psyde Effects, Like Fleas, Tomorrow Never Knows, Southbound Pachyderm
