Primus, Ween & Rush Members Help Celebrate ‘South Park’ 25th Anniversary At Red Rocks: Recap & Videos

For 25 years, the animated sitcom South Park has been pushing boundaries on social commentary through visual arts, comedy and often song. Over 85 original songs have been created since the show premiered on August 13, 1997. Through that lens, it makes perfect sense that the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, would be huge Ween and Primus fans. These two iconic rock bands have been touring for just longer than South Park has been on tv, delivering similar layers of topical thoughtfulness through waggish messaging about poo, assholes, beavers and weasels.

Sometimes literal and sometimes metaphorical, the magic of all three of these artforms — South Park, Ween and Primus — lies in not knowing just how far their makers will take it. No topics are off the table, from sexuality, to global warming, to racism, to Courtney Love. Whether it’s how far they’ll take a joke, especially by way of cartoon (here’s looking at Cartman getting fake tits in the recent special), or unplanned improv jams that sound like fluid, casual conversation among 30-year friends, these three groups are gonna push boundaries, especially when they get together.

They’ve made us think, they ‘ve definitely made us laugh, and at Red Rocks, for the South Park 25th Anniversary Concerts on August 9 and 10, Stone and Parker proved that the talents they are known for barely scratch the surface of their overall abilities.

As everyone filed into the sold-out show on the 9th, knowledgeable music fans tried to gauge whose baby grand piano was on stage, who would play the stacked-up-synths and which drum kit was for which band. After much evaluation and oddball guesses, most guesses were pretty much wrong, as the piano was for Parker, who absolutely dazzled on the keys. We knew the South Park creators were clever writers, but with their vocal and instrumental skills on display as well, it was clear they love to play music and were pretty great at it, too. Both South Park creators sang along, leading on songs from the show throughout the entire two-hour-plus show. Stone played percussion, showing off some legit chops on the drums and even picked up the ukulele, the whole time looking exactly the same as he did 20 years ago. In his blue track suit, he had not aged a day, exuding the energy of a kid performing on the biggest stage in his home state — the case, as it was.

Parker and Stone thanked the audience multiple times, stating they never thought they’d get up on the iconic Red Rocks stage, near their Colorado hometowns, especially getting to stay “stuff like cock-sucking and ass-licking,” among other balls-related nonsense that made the crowd go absolutely nuts. They shared the story of how Primus wrote the famous South Park theme song, which began with Stone seeing Primus in the ’80s.

Primus bassist Les Claypool explained that the band got a letter, written to Primus’ management. Parker and Stone had $72 to offer the band, but after seeing the South Park Christmas special, Claypool and Primus wrote back saying they did not need the $72. They thought this cartoon (South Park) could really be funny, Claypool said, “but we never thought it would take over the world!” Sharing the theme song’s different iterations on stage, Primus revealed that as unknowns, Parker and Stone made changes that they didn’t expect, leading to multiple different song versions. One featured Claypool on Whamola to celebrate the cartoon characters going into fourth grade. For this part of the show, Les came out to raucous applause wearing the same outfit his cartoon character wears during the theme song on the introduction to each South Park.

For this once-in-a-lifetime show, entry lines formed well before doors, and people came dressed for the occasion. South Park character costumes were heavily mixed in with equal parts Grateful Dead gear, Ween hats and “Primus Sucks” shirts. Costume dedication was impressive on these hot summer nights. One showgoer dressed like Randy Marsh after microwaving his balls, wearing giant testicular balloons hanging off his front bouncing on the ground. His partner, Mr. Hanky, wore a knit cap with a brown poop leotard and full-length tights. In the crowd were Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Wendy (they must have killed Kenny), Man-Bear-Pig, Officer Barbrady, Raisins girls, Professor Chaos (!!!), and Mr. Hats and Tegridy Farms representatives throughout. The best homemade shirt award went to, “Fortune Favors Matt Damon,” so shout out to you, sir, wherever you are.

Everyone was in high spirits, and even for music obsessed fans with 500-show stats, no one knew what was coming. That in itself was as magical as getting the coveted invite to Casa Bonita.

From the moment Gene Ween introduced the South Park creators, the next two-plus hours were nonstop laughs. Both nights’ setlists were pretty similar, with a standout difference on night two – Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush joined Primus for “Closer To The Heart” with Matt Stone living out a dream by performing on a second drum set. Coming off their recent A Tribute To Kings tour, Primus was well-versed in playing this one. They were joined by the South Park creators on night one in lieu of the Rush members’ guest appearances. Always trying to solve the little riddles, fans then understood why the ticket cost for night two was slightly higher — a discussion point held among the peanut gallery since the on-sale. Initially, the show was slated for one-night-only on August 10. After tickets sold out so quickly with more demand, a second night was added.

Throughout the shows, Stone, Parker, Primus and Ween all wore cowboy hats and had the best time. More than once the Red Rocks A/V team zoomed in on Dean and Gene Ween with Les Claypool harmonizing as an a capella backup trio for the screens. All three were laughing so hard, they could barely get the words out to hooks like, “Boogers and Cum,” and “jackin’ it in San Diego … jackin it, smackin it, wackin it, wack.” For Ween fans who remember all the rumors that flew around during their hiatus (2012-2015), at one point, people said Gener was going to become a voiceover actor. No one knew if that was because of their ties to SpongeBob Squarepants, or something else, but for what it’s worth, seeing him harmonize over cartoon imagery on screen at this show felt completely natural.

Obviously, the point of their work was never to be serious, but if these moments of pure joy and silliness could have been bottled and sold, Parker and Stone would be … even more loaded. Last year, Parker and Stone signed an unprecedented deal with Viacom to pay over $900 million over the next six years. The contract states South Park will run through its 30th season, making it cable’s longest-running scripted series and release a series of short movies exclusive to streaming service Paramount+. Recently, they released a multi-part COVID special. To become successful on their own terms, especially without censoring thought, is the true American dream. Nothing felt more appropriate than encoring with “America, Fuck Yeah!” and nearly the entire crowd shouted along to every word. Not sure if that shook the rocks more, or the earlier combo of Dave Dreiwitz and Les Claypool together on bass, but both moments felt like magic deep down in my girl balls.

Seeing band members shred guitar, prance around in poofy blouses and wear puffy Lemmiwinks caps was a blast in its own right. After some reflection, the overall show on the 9th truly felt like the funniest experience I’ve ever taken in. It was so well-curated and edited without a moment of downtime. The genius mix of intelligent, topical humor with poop jokes and dick stuff made my face and sides hurt so badly from laughing that I had to bust into the overhead reach stretch throughout, with the dangling-hand rubbing my cramped-up face muscles from smiling so hard. It hurt SO good. If you couldn’t be there, or just want to see it again, Paramount+ has it streaming now, or what seems to be about half the show’s runtime. Merch is on sale here.

Watch pro-shot video of “Gay Fish” as well as fan-shot video from the shows below:

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Setlist

Setlist

Source: JamBase.com