Welcome, friends. This is my first blog, so let me start out by saying that I hope that 708 Bass Pl. will become an online home for everyone who loves bass.
Whoa! I saw Les Claypool play The Rave up in Milwaukee, WI over spring break, and the Sultan of Slap did not disappoint. When Les isn’t performing with Primus, his show takes on a whole new dimension, as he is backed by a saxophone, drum set, and auxiliary percussion. Amazingly, despite the lack of guitar, a strong lead presence was propelled by the saxophone. The sax had a vast effects modeling system, which ranged from the most sultry saxophone tones, to the most distorted lead tones.
The craziness did not end with the sax player. In fact, the drummer and the percussionist did a fifteen-minute drum jam, complete with a marimba on steroids. The marimba was hooked up to its own modeling system that could make the spaciest sounds imaginable. As the drum solo reached its climax, Claypool returned to the stage, with a new mask on and the famous Whamola bass guitar. So much can be said about the Whamola that could definitely use it’s own page of detail. To quickly summarize its amazing-ness, it’s a one string bass, reminiscent of depression-era bluegrass bands, but with a giant tremolo bar attached at the top of the string, which allows the user to dramatically alter the strings tension.
Claypool’s unique lyrics and vocals certainly have given him a reputation for being a wild character, but he is also equipped with a rare amount of poise on stage. To be able to sing such interesting sounding lyrics over brilliant slapping and popping is amazing. The most telling occurrence was when he stopped halfway through the intro to one of his songs to call out a drunken fan that flipped him off.
Les asked, “Are you saying you want to fuck me, or are you just showing me your IQ?”
This set the crowd a-roar, and he went right back to raging. At the end of the night, we had to embark on a snowy journey back to Chicago, but great times were had by all parties during a fantastic live performance.
Check back later this week, for our very first Bassist of the Week!
