Primus and Ty Segall Summer 2025 Tour Moves Onward and Upward to Nashville, TN

By Andrew Pringle

Sunday night, July 13^th, 2025, psychedelic funk metal legends Primus brought their eclectic sound to Nashville’s The Pinnacle. Joined by indie garage rock icon Ty Segall, the “Onward and Upward” Summer 2025 tour hit the stage of Music City’s most recent 4,500-person capacity venue. While not sold out, leave it to a band like Primus to pack out a Sunday show with their loyal fans who came prepared, ready to rage. 

At promptly 8pm, opening act Ty Segall took the stage. Having only known about Ty through word of mouth from fellow fans of indie music, my preconceptions were quickly shattered, in the best way possible. From the first strums of the opening song “Finger”, it was clear the audience was in for an energetic and immersive set. While being labeled as an indie artist, his sound supersedes the blanket description. With a catalogue dating back to the late 2000s, his expansive palette can be compared to the likes of Jack White’s garage-rock, fuzz-rock beasts Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney, punk pioneers The Stooges, and even as far as Melvins-esq sludge metal. Surprisingly, his most streamed music on streaming platforms mainly consists of his Neil Young influenced folk-rock material. Along with his spectacular live band, Ty puts his everything into his performance, thrashing his upper torso while playing heavy riffs. Not only was he there to play his music, he also made a political statement, draping a cloth over his amplifier with “ICE” inside a red circle with a slash through the middle, protesting the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, whose actions have further divided the American population in recent months.

Between songs, his stage banter was simple, introducing himself and his band, additionally, he hyped up the crowd for the headlining act. Near the end of his set, he yelled the old-fashioned cheerleader call and response of “Give me a P! Give me an R! Give me an I! Give me an M! Give me a U! Give me an S! What does that spell?” to which the crowd screamed “PRIMUS!” By the end of his set, it was evident that he had won the crowd over, which is no simple task when it comes to opening for a band like Primus. Historically, Primus chooses their openers as artists who they find to be unique and worthy of attention, sometimes not even of the same genre, as opposed to artists with a similar sound. Over the years, these selected opening acts have been hit-or-miss with the crowds, but it was clear that the crowd at The Pinnacle gave their approval to Ty and his band. 

After the changeover, the lights went down, the crowd cheered and started the iconic two-word chant- “Primus Sucks!” A phrase the band embraced early in their career as a sarcastic agreement to hecklers who would yell it at their shows. In the darkness, Danny Elfman’s twisted “Clown Dream” composition played over the PA system. Originating from the musical score of Tim Burton’s debut film Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, it is a perfect fit for a band like Primus, wacky and playful but never afraid to dive headfirst into nightmarish territory. Taking the stage first, guitarist Larry “Ler” Lalonde and drummer John “Hoffer” Hoffman, the trio’s most recent addition, took their positions. As “Clown Dream” faded out, Ler rang out the dissonant opening wah-heavy chord of their classic tune “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers”, a song about blue-collar workers in San Francisco using meth to get them through their workday, as well as criticizing President George H.W. Bush’s anti-drug campaign. After ringing out the chord a few times, bassist and singer Les Claypool took the stage, which fired up the crowd with excitement and a roaring cheer. Without hesitation he accompanied Ler with the song’s thumping bassline and began singing the opening verse, before exploding into the chorus, all instruments going full force, and the audience yelling “hey-uh!” in unison. Not only is the song a staple of their catalogue, but it also does a great job of allowing the three members to flex their instrumental abilities and jam, playfully navigating the tune, which makes for a great opening song. As the song concluded, they wasted no time blasting straight into “Dirty Drowning Man”, a hidden gem from the often-neglected 1999 album Antipop. Prior to this tour, this song was last performed live in 2017, and even then, was considered a rarity. Following that, a recent viral video was displayed on the screens where a woman on a podcast describes Primus as the worst concert she ever attended. They then hopped right into “HOINFODAMAN”, another infrequently played song which deals with the artistic struggle of selling-out within the music industry, using the analogy of pimps and prostitutes to describe the feeling of once being at the top of the industry but falling and becoming a ploy for the industry. Once the song concluded, Les broke into his typical stage banter, howling “Nashville!” in his iconic nasally voice with an extra hint of southern twang before jokingly apologizing to the audience for subjecting music city to the sound and songs of Primus. Additionally, he introduced the band’s newest member, Hoffer, before bursting into yet another deep cut “Dutchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread”. The song featured an extended section that allowed Hoffer to cut loose and demonstrate his chops, proving that Les and Ler made the right decision when looking through the thousands of drummer applications after previous drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander unexpectedly made his third departure from the band in October 2024. 

Of the fifteen song setlist, seven of the songs were deep cuts, which comes as no surprise for a band like Primus, who, despite the criticisms and tribulations they’ve faced throughout their three decade career, are never afraid to revisit songs that never received the attention they felt they deserve. It’s even worth mentioning that the album with the most songs performed from was the polarizing 1998 Brown Album, which includes “Over the Falls” and “Shake Hands with Beef”. Another highlight of the show includes “Jilly’s on Smack”, where Les momentarily walked off stage before returning with a pig mask, playing the song on an upright bass, bowing dark notes, while Ler plays arpeggios through a heavy delay effect, which is all tied together by Hoffer’s smooth and intricate hi-hat rolls. Oh, and Les singing haunting lyrics about a character named Jilly’s struggle with heroin addiction. 

The final four songs of the show included hits such as “My name is Mud” and “Jerry was a Racecar Driver”, which resulted in mosh pits erupting in the general admission standing room, along with fan favorites “Over the Electric Grapevine” and the sprawling encore “Southbound Pachyderm”, where the band brought out Ty Segall for the final few minutes to jam with them. 

After the show, I overheard some of the attendees complaining that the band didn’t play some of their biggest hits such as “Tommy the Cat”, “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”, or “Too Many Puppies”. While I can understand the discontentment and the hunger for more, my simple response is to go see Primus again. As notorious as Primus is, over the years they’ve racked up a surprising number of hits and singles, which they can’t be expected to play nightly. However, with a setlist that changes every show and their willingness to pull from every corner of their discography, no fan favorite is off the table but is in good rotation. 

My history with Primus dates back to my freshman year of high school, getting hooked onto their hits. Previously, I knew their name purely from my dad telling me about how he saw them open for Rush on their 1992 “Roll the Bones” tour in St. Petersburg, FL. My sophomore year of high school was when the Covid-19 Pandemic shut the world down, and in the excessive free time, I fell down the rabbit hole of Primus’ music, becoming enveloped by their heavy rhythms and weird instrumentation. Since then, they have consistently been one of my all-time favorite bands and continue to scratch the itch in my mind that desires captivating music. This most recent show was my fourth time seeing them (not including Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade who I saw in 2023), and time after time, they continue to blow me away and have me looking forward to seeing again and again. 

I do feel compelled to give a disclaimer to anyone who has never been to a Primus show: stay safe. My first time seeing them was in Atlanta, GA in 2021, and having been to numerous metal, hardcore, punk, etc. shows in my lifetime, that particular show still feels like one of the rowdiest I’ve ever attended. Neither age nor alcohol consumption will stop a Primus fan from going all out in the mosh pit. If I had not been shoved around so much that night, I am certain that my shoes would’ve been stuck to the ground from all the spilled beer, which also soaked the back of my shirt. I also contracted Covid at that show, but in retrospect I feel like that is one of the least bad things one could contract at a Primus show. Since then, I have done my best to avoid the mosh pits at Primus shows (coming from someone who loves to mosh). The good news is that The Pinnacle has a variety of standing and seating options, making it a great fit for a show were not every attendee wants to get caught in the crossfire of moshing and crowd surfers. However, if you plan on moshing and such, don’t let it interfere with someone else’s enjoyment of the show and look out for fellow moshers. 

Fan or not, I encourage anyone who likes live music to see Primus in their lifetime. Being one of the most unique and distinct bands of recent decades, they continually reinvent themselves while not compromising the things that have made them appealing since the beginning. This show at The Pinnacle is further proof that even after three decades they are still going strong and show no signs of stopping soon. After all, Primus Sucks!