Guitarist Larry Lalonde released sheets of spastic shred during “Over The Falls” and “Lee Van Cleef” turned into a behemoth jam during which Claypool’s soupy Whamola basswork and Tim Alexander’s exploratory drum rhythms turned into a brand new beast. The first ripples of Claypool’s hypnotizing bass intro to “American Life” rang out over the field in perfect harmony with the fading pastels of the sunset, so vibrant that Claypool gestured and commented: “You people are all looking the wrong direction.” As natural light faded the songs stretched out and got a little weirder. As a live show, however, notorious bizarro conductor Les Claypool and his gang of deviants have succeeded in creating a spectacle that is kaleidoscopic both in sound and sight. As an album, Primus and the Chocolate Factory struggled to push past novelty status, meant for hardcore fans of either the movie or the band or both.

So if any band is fit for the job of re-interpreting the music of the 1971 film of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and exposing the nightmarish cavity in author Roald Dahl’s sweet tooth, it’s certainly them. Primus has never been afraid to think big, making a name for themselves by re-envisioning entire music genres since their inception in the late 1980’s.

Primus chocolate factory full album