and played these shitty gigs for fifteen people. We were this oddball band. And it wasn’t until Fishbone and the Chili Peppers started touring through the Bay Area that people were like, “Oh, we can stick Primus with these guys.” So we would get these opening slots for both those bands.
NORWOOD FISHER [Fishbone bassist]: It was when Primus opened for us [the first time Fisher heard Primus]. It’s all kind of blurry. [Laughs] I don’t think they had an album out. We had been going into the area, and there was this band, this trio, called Dot 3. When I first saw Primus, I was like, Oh, they’re kind of like Dot 3, because they had a badass bass player—but he was more Geddy Lee–like. But they were doing something different. It was wilder—Primus was way further to the left. And what Les was doing was wilder than Dot 3. In my mind, I’m thinking it was closer to the mid-’80s than the late-’80s when we first did this stuff with Primus. Les’s technique was more unique.
ANGELO MOORE [Fishbone singer and saxophonist]: We were all playing at the same level of clubs. And we were way more in each other’s scene. So before everybody got split up, it was more of a community thing. We’d either be playing in Los Angeles or San Francisco. I know that Primus was more of a San Francisco kind of band. So when we would go up there, I remember them being in the area and in the scene—before everybody took a step up in the industry.
NORWOOD FISHER: Fortunately, for the fans, all the bands that were linked together as a scene, they were all really different. That was the beauty of that time period, when I look back on it. Really, what they did, they were drawing from a whole other energy. The dynamics of the band were really pronounced—really high highs, and really quiet parts. They were really playing with the outside. They were really on the fringes. And it was not a pop band. But it was catchy, nonetheless. And it was funky. But it was funky unlike the funk that came before it. [Primus’s sense of humor] was some of the funkiest parts of it. That’s one of my favorite parts of P-Funk, the sense of humor and the irony. So that part of it was really attractive.
LES CLAYPOOL: When Jayski joined the band, all of a sudden you could just feel it—you could feel the band come together. We reworked all those old songs into Jayski’s style, with his really crispy, intricate hi-hat work.
JAY LANE: It was different [playing with Les and Todd], because it was a real cozy feeling. It was just these two dudes in this room. We would just get together in that room and jam and rehearse. Back in those days, it was before everyone had a home studio, with computers and stuff. You weren’t doing much recording, unless you saved up some money and went to someone’s studio. And that was really rare. But we ended up doing that anyway—we recorded a demo tape. I can only compare it to what I was listening to at the time, so at the time, it reminded me of King Crimson. I was really into that stuff—King Crimson, Peter Gabriel. And playing with Les was kind of like that. But it was also a little fusion-y too, because he has a nice bass-plucking style.
DAVID LEFKOWITZ: The sound with Jay Lane was a different thing. It was still Todd Huth, obviously, but it just coalesced with the groove. The fact that everybody was influenced by this funk-oriented sound and Jay was a funk drummer—it just took it to a new level.
CHRIS “TROUZ” CUEVAS: Early on, I don’t know if I totally identified with it. I thought it was pretty cool, but I think at first when I heard it, I was like, This is Les’s thing, I’m going to support him. It’s interesting. But it really did grow on me—especially when the funk metal scene started forming, and there were other bands playing more hard rock/thrash stuff with funk bass lines. Y’know, Chilis, Fishbone, and some more local peers. Once that melded together, I got a lot more into Primus’s music, and became not only someone who was helping them out or working with them, but I definitely became a fan, as well. All our friends rallied around their shows. It would be a party every time they played.
DAVID LEFKOWITZ: At that time, 1988, this punk/funk scene was really growing. The world beat thing had sputtered out—the Freaky Executives signed to Warner Brothers and spent time recording and rerecording an album that never came out. The Looters signed to Island and put out one record, after one record on Alternative Tentacles. And that did nothing. And Big City broke up. So Brain [Bryan “Brain” Mantia] and Pete Scaturro formed the Limbomaniacs, and there were other bands, like Psychefunkapus, that went on to sign with Atlantic, and Fungo Mungo, who went on to sign with Island. The Limbomaniacs signed with Relativity Records, and had their one album produced by Bill Laswell, and it featured Maceo Parker and Bootsy Collins. And suddenly, this Red Hot Chili Peppers/Fishbone kind of vibe was the most influential thing in the Bay Area.
JAY LANE: We played these little clubs, and it was super packed. It was really relaxed, I remember it being really loose, because Les would have this little banter with the audience. To me, it really broke the whole thing of . . . All the bands I was in, in the eighties, it was like, We’re up here performing. We’ve got to be really good. There was no talking with the audience. It wasn’t like, “Hey, let’s just break it down. What’s up with this guy? Hey!” That was really cool, and it made it really easy to just relax and play. We didn’t make any money, but it was fun.
CHRIS “TROUZ” CUEVAS: Some of those local gigs were selling out, like Berkeley Square and this place called the Omni. All of a sudden, the energy of the fans changed. There was a line around the block and the intensity inside the show was just so crazy, with people stage-diving and going crazy. Back then, the Omni seemed like this major, huge club. And it probably only would hold five or six hundred people. But back then, that was a big deal.
Berkeley Square was small. Y’know, a black-box rock club, kind of. But fairly eclectic, and all the big bands that later became pretty huge came through and played Berkeley Square—from U2 to the Chili Peppers; the Clash one time came through. It was that small club that everybody played, and Berkeley didn’t really have many live music venues. It only had two, I think—the Keystone Berkeley and the Berkeley Square. So there then was this club in Oakland [the Omni], owned by the guy who started the Nady wireless system—one of the first wireless systems back then. It was a big, open space—high ceiling, not a rock club–looking place at all. And it had a big backstage, where you could roll your equipment. It seemed really professional. You go by that building today and you look at it from the outside, and you’re like, “That’s a piece of shit!” [Laughs] But it was amazing back then.
DAVID LEFKOWITZ: I used to create these bills that would draw enough people to warrant us doing a show headlining at the Omni in Oakland. I would call it the Funk Thrash Festival—just so people thought it was this big thing. Typically, it would be four bands—usually Primus and the Limbomaniacs, and then two other bands. And it did great—we would sell a thousand tickets on a regular basis. We could do that at least every other month—sometimes every six weeks. So we were able to make enough money from those shows to not only live on, but channel funds back into the band.
TODD HUTH: Jay came in, and he started playing and all the songs came together real fast. Then we went down and recorded a tape called Sausage. That kind of kicked off people noticing Primus—that tape.
LES CLAYPOOL: The Sausage demo came about because we were doing some shows locally. I think we were doing a show in the South Bay with Fungo Mungo. It was the first time we played with those guys and we were hanging out with them. They took us into . . . I don’t remember if it was my car or one of their cars, to play us their demo. And we were like, “Holy shit, this thing sounds amazing!” Sonically, it just sounded amazing. Mike, the guitar player, was like, “Dude, you’ve got to hook up with our buddy Matt Winegar. He did this on his little TASCAM.” I’m like, “Hell yeah, let’s hook up with this guy.” So we go to their rehearsal space, which was basically this storage unit down in Fremont, I think. We go in the place, and here’s this kid, Matt Winegar. I don’t know if he was fresh out of high school or still in high school. But he was this kid, and he had this little TASCAM reel-to-reel eight-track in this storage unit, and he set up a few mics—nothing fancy, some 57s and 58s. And me, Todd, and Jay played those songs that are on the Sausage demo. And it just sounded amazing. So then