Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards hosted Primus with special guest Ty Segall on Friday, July 18 in Lafayette and were blessed with a gorgeous summer night for a concert in Central NY. Halfway into their first tour with new drummer John Hoffman, Primus thrilled fans of all ages and delivered foot-stomping fan favorites.
The verdict is in. Beak & Skiff is a top-notch venue. Primus still sucks.
Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards
Proudly named “Best Apple Orchard in the Country” by USA Today in 2024, 2021, 2020, 2017, and 2015, Beak and Skiff lived up to its title with a variety of attractions and amenities. Gates opened at 3 pm to a sprawling campus, which led one new patron after another to remark that this was their first time at this venue.
Beak & Skiff is more than an apple and cider producer, and it’s more than just an open field for concerts. Beak & Skiff is a destination trip, featuring an apple barn, the 1911 Tasting Room and Tavern, which serves hard ciders, spirits, wines, and CBD-infused beverages, a General Store, a Cafe and Bakery, and a Kids Treehouse with rides and games for children of all ages. An extensive, reasonably priced menu with vegetarian, Gluten-Free, and allergy-sensitive options offered plentiful, tasty choices for hungry bellies. The main campus welcomes patrons to chill out with picnic tables and Adirondack chairs strewn throughout, worthy of an early arrival on the day of a show to beat late-coming traffic.
Once the concert gates opened at 6 pm, the venue’s comfort was showcased. With the main campus open to complement the concert crowd’s cravings, several beverage stations and a food tent inside the concert lines kept the lines short. More than enough port-a-potties kept bladders empty just as quickly as the thirsty drinkers could fill them. The concert grounds were clearly marked for standers and dancers in the lower third, with a line demarking the area for camping chairs.
No, you don’t have to pay for the chairs. In this economy? What a novel concept. Yep, bring your own chairs – it’s cool! The sound was a bit muffled when not centrally located as crowds spilled over to the side of the stage. Admittedly, it’s a first-world problem when all of the other amenities are factored together.
While the crowd’s average lifespan was decidedly middle-aged, enough youthful energy was present to give hope to the live music industry. Notably, a father and his 13-year-old son/drummer from Albany attended. The boy giddily returned from the merch tent with a Primus t-shirt, a poster, and a “Little Lord Fentenyl” vinyl single, which he pledged to never play. Dad bragged his son would know every single song. In turn, the excited lad was stoked for his first chance to hear Jon Hoffman on the drumkit, which the lad aspires to master in time. Another youngster (eleven-ish) received a signed Primus drumstick near the photo pit just before Primus took the stage and left with a perma-grin after his dad captured digital proof.
Ty Segall
Californian garage-psych rocker Ty Segall opened the night while touring in support of his May 30th album release, Possession. At 38 years old, Segall has released 16 solo studio efforts, including an astounding four albums over the past two years alone. This tour with Primus has been his first major supporting stint on the road, featuring a stop at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater.
The Ty Segall Band includes Segall on lead vocals and guitar, Mikal Cronin (bass, backing vocals), Evan Burroughs (drums), Emmett Kelley (guitar), and Ben Boye (keyboards). Piano and keyboards are a new addition to the lineup and are featured on the latest album.
Distinctively psychedelic rock with droning vocals and hypnotic, looping guitar parts full of fuzz, distortion and feedback, Segall mixes indie garage punk riffs to break up the musical trance. His catalog evokes late 60’s and early 70’s British psychedelia, such The Beatles Revolver and early David Bowie.
The title track to Segall’s recent release is a standout song, finding its way to public and non-commercial radio playlists nationwide. Possession was followed by “Wave Goodbye” and “Feel,” which segued to a percussive guitar solo by Segall before morphing into a psychedelic feedback-heavy intro of “Love Fuzz” (laden with guitar fuzz effects) to close the 45-minute set, reminiscent of equal parts Jimi Hendrix and Jack White.
Setlist: Void, Candy Sam, Goodbye Bread, Possession, Wave Goodbye, Feel, Love Fuzz
Primus last appeared at Beak and Skiff in 2022 during the “A Tribute to Kings” tour, in which they covered Farewell to Kings by Rush sandwiched between a set of their own music and the encore classic Primus hits. On this swing through Central NY, new drummer Jon “Hoffer” Hoffman has been featured on the “Onward & Upward” tour, with holdovers Larry “Ler” LaLonde on guitar and the towering presence of Les Claypool on lead bass.
Far from pop, Primus gained popularity with college radio stations, which embraced the band’s odd new tunes. Primus rose to prominence when they embraced the visual aspect of music early on, debuting in 1990 with the first studio single, “John the Fisherman.” Their quirky short films cast their weirdness to a legion of music fans at a time when viewership was ready for something new and different. MTV videos followed for “Tommy the Cat”, “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “My Name is Mud”, which vaulted Pork Soda all the way up to #7 on Billboard pop album charts in 1993 and #8 in 1995 Tales From the Punchbowl – possibly the weirdest, unlikeliest band to accomplish such a feat.
Les Claypool assumed his signature pose with his left foot perched up high as the band started the set with his distinctive percussive bass plucking on “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweakers.” A video screen behind the band played oddball cartoons and clips of their music videos to help loosen the older crowd’s nostalgic memories of how many of them had discovered Primus. This tour saw the tour debut of Oysterhead cover, “Polka Dot Rose” before seguing back to a “Groundhog’s Day” Reprise.
Claypool was decked out in brown, from the derby hat and plaid shirt jacket down to his foot tappers. Was it a sign of things to come? The fifteen-song set (including encore) featured five songs from the Brown album, played consecutively starting with “Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread.” After perusing the crazies in the crowd, Claypool determined that new drummer Jon Hoffman was in breach of contract for not wearing a banana suit. Out of 952,000 applicants from all across the universe, the foot-stomping band leader roughly estimated. Hoffer was the winner of the permanent gig.
The cool front that swept across Central NY on Friday night allowed the band to feel comfortable enough to let the stage banter flow. Once again, Claypool assumed the stance to launch into “Golden Boy.” During the intro, Claypool asked LaLonde to tell the crowd about his new guitars. The first axe was described as a Gibson Explorer by Ler. “Just like James Hetfield,” declared Les and the second a Stratocaster. “A brand new Stratamacaster just like John Mayer” that reminded the ringleader of the Suck On This days, drawing hearty laughter from the audience. He “done broke the darn bass guitar” during “Over the Falls.” LaLonde was asked to show off his new “Stratamacaster” but Les insisted that no tuning was necessary because “this is Primus and we don’t need to be in tune.”
The following three songs were among the tour’s most frequently played, as “Bob’s Party Time Lounge” then “Welcome to This World” transitioned seamlessly into “My Name Is Mud”, sung full-throated in unison by the gleeful participants filling the grassy viewing area. The Pork Soda run of songs continued with a tour rarity, “The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Part. 3).”
As the set drew to an end, the crowd derisively jeered in unison to coerce the band back to the stage for the encore. Chants of “Primus sucks!” echoed throughout the grounds. The trio quickly acquiesced with one of their fan favorites, “Tommy the Cat,” to close out the night.
Democracy still works. The crowd vote was unanimous. Primus still sucks. Beak and Skiff is a great place to spend the day and catch a concert. This country is better with smaller, independent corporations and promoters leading the way and with artists that break the algorithms we are enslaved by.
Setlist: Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweakers, Dirty Drowning Man, Groundhog’s Day > Polka Dot Rose (Oysterhead cover) > Groundhog’s Day Reprise, Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread, Golden Boy, Over the Falls, Restin’ Bones, Bob’s Party Time Lounge, Welcome to This World > My Name Is Mud, The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon (Fisherman’s Chronicles, Part. 3), Over the Grapevine, Harold of the Rocks
Encore: Tommy the Cat
Photos by Daniel Bocchino
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