Photos and Review by Jolene Rheault
This past Tuesday night, the open-air stage at TD Amp Ballantyne became ground zero for a historic, bass-slapping marathon. For the first time in his celebrated, eccentric career, the enigmatic mastermind Les Claypool brought together his three most notorious projects for a single evening under the banner of “Claypool Gold.”
Serving as a masterclass in musical madness, this outdoor triple-header featured the mighty Primus, the resurrected Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and the triumphant return of The Claypool Lennon Delirium. It wasn’t just a concert—it was a deep dive into the glorious, psychedelic, and odd worlds of a true musical legend.
Opening the night as the sun began to dip below the amphitheater horizon was Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. Formed back in the summer of 2000 during a Primus hiatus, the Brigade has always been a vehicle for pure, unadulterated sonic exploration. Claypool has famously described their sound as a “King Crimson meets Pink Floyd meets Frank Zappa type thing,” and the current six-piece lineup completely leaned into that description.
Featuring Sean Lennon delivering brilliant, spacey work on guitar, Harry Waters on keys, Paulo Baldi keeping pristine time on drums, Mike Dillon on percussion, and Skerik delivering his signature, wild saxophone wails, the collective delivered a wall of sound that felt massive beneath the open sky.
“Up on the Roof” kicked things off with an immediate, heavy groove before “Lust Stings” kept the momentum rolling, showcasing the band’s seamless chemistry. A stellar cover of Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel’s “Precipitation” rippled beautifully through the outdoor venue, and they ultimately closed the brief but impactful set with a driving, hypnotic rendition of “David Makalaster.”
By the time The Claypool Lennon Delirium took the stage, the amphitheater was perfectly primed for a trip down the rabbit hole. Marking their first tour in seven years, this project is what happens when two abstract geniuses collide. The legendary bassist and cohort Sean Lennon showcased exactly why their performance partnership works so well, treating the crowd to a stellar set packed with oddball brilliance and spacey weirdness.
Live on stage for this set, Lennon added his vocal talents to the mix, trading eerie, melodic harmonies with Claypool while simultaneously unleashing intricate, psychedelic guitar riffs. Together, their combined front-and-center energy laid a flawless sonic foundation. The crowd was treated to a spectacular run of tracks, including “South of Reality,” “Meat Machines,” and the title track from their brand-new ATO Records release, “The Golden Egg of Empathy.”
A major highlight of the set was the live performance of “WAP (What a Predicament),” the blistering lead single from their new album, which went over massively with the outdoor crowd. They capped the project’s return off perfectly with a mesmerizing, spacey cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” that soared right into the night.
But the real meat of the evening belonged to the heavyweight champions of funk-metal: Primus. Formed in 1984, the band built a massive cult following through the ’90s with surreal visuals and technically complex instrumentation. Tonight, the core 2026 lineup—featuring Claypool, longtime guitar wizard Larry “Ler” LaLonde, and drummer John Hoffman (who seamlessly joined the fold in 2025)—proved they haven’t lost an ounce of their signature, bone-rattling punch.
Opening with a furious, hard-hitting “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers,” the trio delivered a setlist that was a dream for diehard fans. LaLonde’s atmospheric, jagged guitar work intertwined perfectly with Hoffman’s rock-solid backbone, allowing Les to completely unleash on the bass.
The amphitheater erupted during mid-set surprises, including a tour debut cover of The Residents’ “Hello Skinny” and a delightfully sneaky snippet of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” woven into “Over the Falls.” By the time the band closed out the main set with the back-to-back heavy hitters “My Name Is Mud” and “Harold of the Rocks” (complete with a cheeky nod to Rush’s “A Passage to Bangkok”), the entire venue was in a state of pure euphoria.
Returning under the flashing stage lights for the encore, they delivered a heavy, atmospheric, and utterly mesmerizing rendition of “Southbound Pachyderm,” bringing the marathon night to a perfect close.
Charlotte got a night of pure magic: genre-bending jams, jaw-dropping musicianship, and the kind of weird, wonderful energy that only a legend like Les Claypool can orchestrate. Whether navigating the prog-heavy waters of the Frog Brigade, the psychedelic swirl of the Delirium, or the funk-metal frenzy of Primus, the “Claypool Gold” tour proved to be an absolute masterclass in stage presence and chemistry.
The mind-melting experience is only just heating up as the “Claypool Gold” coast-to-coast invasion continues its summer run. The tour hits St. Augustine on June 19, Atlanta on June 20, Rogers on June 22, and Austin on June 23, before rolling through Texas, Colorado, and Arizona, and finally wrapping up with a massive West Coast celebration in California this July. Check the official tour schedule and don’t miss out on catching this legendary triple-header when it rolls into a venue near you.
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