Any artist who begins a show with a Jethro Tull cover is begging for a critical steamrolling, but when Les Claypool and his Frog Brigade kicked into “Locomotive Breath” at the State Theatre Saturday night, it wasn’t a case of wildly poor taste so much as an indication of the freakiness to come. Indeed, the freaks were out in force at the sold-out gig, which is just the way Claypool---best known as bassist/leader of springs-sprung weirdoes Primus---likes it. He choogled the outfit through two hours of barely controlled prog-rock forced through a psychedelic blender.
Decked out in bowler and mask ala “A Clockwork Orange”, Claypool’s wild rubber bass notes charged ahead of drummer Fish, saxophonist Skerik (in a shimmering golden pharoh/Pope getup), Mike Dillon on vibes and marimba and guitarist Eenor as they writhed through tunes from Claypool’s latest recording, “Purple Onion”. Alongside songs like “Ding Dang”, “Buzzards of Green Hill” and the jumpy greasy spoon ode “D’s Diner”, the Frog Brigade wigged out on an epic dismantling (nearly 35 minutes long) of the Rolling Stones’ “2000 Light Years From Home” and a trip through Primus’ “Groundhog’s Day”. Along the way Claypool threw in some electric banjo, his trademark post-Zappa lyrics and proved to be a wonderfully entertaining host. That he confirmed his position as one of the few mainstream musicians to consistently succeed with such a strict diet of weird was a bonus perhaps only noted by critical types. Everybody else was too busy drinking up the freaky fun.
Washington Post, 2002
