Watch Primus First Show For Rush Tribute Concert

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After a lengthy delay due to the pandemic, Primus finally launched their Rush tribute tour last Tuesday in Boise Idaho. They first played their own songs before they performed Rush’s classic “A Farewell to Kings” in full and in its original sequence. They wrapped up their set with the epic “Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage”, which was bassist Les Claypool’s favorite track.

Just before they embarked on the trek, Claypool posted a photo on Instagram of him and Rush bass player Geddy Lee. The former captioned it with, “Learning from the master.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Claypool clarified that they received Lee’s blessing before they plotted the tour.

“I texted with him — I keep in touch with Geddy — just to make sure we weren’t trodding on something weird,” Claypool explained. “So I checked in with him to see what he thought of it, and he was excited about the notion. … He thought it was a great idea.”

Interestingly, Primus actually considered doing “Hemispheres” instead of “A Farewell to Kings”.

“That record has always had a very big place in my heart and head. But as we got to thinking about the record and how to tackle it — because it’s not going to be an easy feat, on many levels,” Claypool said. “But we settled on Kings, because A) it was the first Rush record I ever heard and B) it contains ‘Cygnus X-1,’ which has always been my favorite Rush tune. It seems to be a good one for us to tackle; 2112 seemed a little obvious.”

Their Rush tribute tour runs through the fall, and includes a stop in New York City’s Beacon Theater.