[UPDATE 12/16/24]: Primus has revealed a new billing for its upcoming New Year’s run in the Bay Area. The shows at Oakland, CA’s The Fox Theater on December 30th and 31st are now being promoted as Claypool Gold featuring the Unholy Alliance of Primus, The Frog Brigade, and The Holy Mackerel. As previously announced, the run will feature support from The Limbomaniacs (12/30) and Beanpole (12/31) [ticketing information].
The 2024 Primus New Year’s run, announced two months prior to former drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander‘s sudden resignation from his role in November, was originally billed as The NYE Fisherman’s Chronicles Costume Ball. When the band’s remaining members, bassist/vocalist Les Claypool and guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde, announced Herb’s departure, they noted that the Oakland shows—a “special, one-time event”—would feature fill-ins from the ranks of two other Claypool-fronted bands, Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel.
While it seems the new Claypool Gold billing seems to do away with the planned “costume ball” element of the run—the band had originally told fans, “Be it some freakish scaly bastard siren or banshee, or a brave soul who rides the tides a master at sea, com dressed as your favorite seafaring representative,”—we’d like to cordially invite you to wear that costume you’ve been planning anyways.
The new billing announcement noted that tickets to both nights are almost sold out. Grab yours here.
The newly christened Claypool Gold performances in Oakland will mark the first scheduled Primus dates since Herb’s exit. For Primus’ slot at March 2025’s Tool Live in the Sand, Tool drummer Danny Carey is set to sub in as the band’s drummer.
From there, Primus will once again team up with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer for Sessanta V2.0, celebrating Maynard James Keenan’s 61st birthday. For that six-week trek, the band is in the midst of an open call for applications in hopes of finding the “greatest drummer on earth” to join its ranks.
Related: Watch Billy Strings Audition To Be Primus’ New Drummer
Claypool and LaLonde recently encouraged applicants to post their submission videos on YouTube with the hashtag #PrimusDrumAudition (“That way you can rest assured your performance gets viewed and also potentially rated by the PRIMUS world community”) and noted that they would be “posting [their] progress along with audition performances with the band, and special celebrity drum review committee discussions on the PRIMUS YouTube channel.”
For more on how to apply to be the new drummer in Primus, head here.
[9/11/24]: Primus has announced that it will ring in the new year in the Bay Area for the first time in seven years with a two-night run at Oakland, CA’s The Fox Theater on December 30th and 31st, 2024. The esoteric, Les Claypool-led outfit also revealed that the shows, billed as The NYE Fisherman’s Chronicles Costume Ball, will feature support from The Limbomaniacs (12/30) and Beanpole (12/31) [ticketing information].
In its announcement post for The NYE Fisherman’s Chronicles Costume Ball, Primus also laid out the nautical costume theme for the two-night New Year’s run. “Be it some freakish scaly bastard siren or banshee, or a brave soul who rides the tides a master at sea, come dressed as your favorite seafaring representative!” the band noted on social media.
‘Lucky Bastard’ VIP Experience packages are available in limited supply for each night of the run. The package includes 1 GA ticket along with a pre-show Q&A with the band, an autographed limited edition screen printed VIP poster, early entry to the venue, crowd-free merchandise shopping, and an onsite event host. Pre-sale tickets and VIP packages are available on Wednesday, September 11th. Remaining tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, September 13th at 10:00 a.m. PT. Pre-sale signup info can be found here. Find complete ticketing details for the Primus NYE Fisherman’s Chronicles Costume Ball run here.
“Regular” Primus shows (i.e. not co-headlining, not focused on a specific tribute) have been relatively rare in the last several years. Following a 2023 during which much of Les Claypool’s attention was focused on the revival of the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Primus spent much of this past summer on a co-headlining national tour with Coheed and Cambria and a good chunk of the spring participating in Maynard James Keenan‘s Sessanta Tour alongside Puscifer and A Perfect Circle. Prior to that, in 2021 and 2022, Primus gigged extensively on its A Tribute to Kings Tour, during which the band performed nightly complete renditions of Rush‘s A Farewell to Kings. The two 2024 New Year’s run shows are currently the only confirmed dates on the band’s tour schedule.
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