The Les Claypool Frog Brigade with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew show was initially scheduled to take place at Mardi Gras World. Cooler heads prevailed and the very visual show was moved to a much more comfortable venue, The Saenger Theater. The Frog Brigade last played New Orleans in 2005 at TwiPoPa.
Claypool is a working man's musician if there ever was one and The Frog Brigade is on of his most exciting projects. This time around, they delighted the audience by covering Pink Floyd's Animals in its entirety. The Animals portion of the set was sandwiched between Lennon Delirium material and Holy Mackerel songs. The set also included a nod to New Orleans with a cover of Professor Longhair's "Rum and Coke." Mike Dillion, one of New Orleans' best percussionists is in the band. The band also included Claypool (bass) and Sean Lennon (guitar), Harry Waters (keyboards), and Paulo Baldi (drums). The end of their encore was highlighted by an amazing cover of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows."
On this particular tour Les has had some great bands open for him. Saturday's show was no exception with Jerry Harrison of The Talking Heads and Adrian Below of King Crimson fame. Below was an intrigue part of the Talking Heads album Remain in Light and was also a touring member of the band. The mostly Talking Heads set covered a lot of material from that album as well as a King Crimson cover and Al Green's "Take Me to the River," an anthem of sorts for the band.
Both sets were amazing, and I did not mind the odd paring of bands, but apparently at least a quarter of the audience did as they made their way to the door after the Talking Heads set. The venue change was nice, in the we were not burdened with the heat and being indoors allowed for a more vibrant set.
