Formed in California’s Bay Area in 1984, Primus found a dedicated cult audience and even flirted with mainstream success. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Primus

Last year’s Sessanta tour redefined package tours by pulling together three potential headliners — Primus, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer — and having them swap sets every three songs.

Now, with Sessanta V 2.0 scheduled to hit Freeman Coliseum on Tuesday, April 29, we talked to Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde about what kind of mindfuck to expect this time around.

In fitting with his “Just roll with it, man” demeanor, LaLonde said he wasn’t entirely sure of the setup — this despite the tour starting three short weeks from our conversation.

“We’re about to fire it back up,” LaLonde said, with a shrug during a Zoom call from his home in Los Angeles. “I’m assuming it’s going to be a similar format.”

Whatever the three headliners come up with, it seems likely to be among the most inventive shows to hit the area in 2025. And that’s due in no small part to Primus itself.

The group, formed in California’s Bay Area in 1984, found a dedicated cult audience and even flirted with mainstream success via a blend of bass-driven not-quite funk, thrashy metal and King Crimson-indebted prog.

Frontman Les Claypool dominates the Primus sound with his dexterous basslines, quirky vocals and character-driven story songs. But dig just a little deeper and LaLonde emerges as a subtle but key player, adding dissonance and sinister vibes to the proceedings.

LaLonde is all about contrast. Need an example? As a teen, he somehow managed to be a member of pioneering death metal band Possessed while taking lessons from fluid, clean-tone guitar guru Joe Satriani.

The following interview with LaLonde has been edited for length and clarity.

Looking at setlists from the first Sessanta tour, it looks like it’s interlocking, rotating sets?

Yeah, A Perfect Circle played three songs, Puscifer for three, then us for three. And then again. Three, three, three. And then again. And then we sort of started mingling together. And as the night went on, everyone’s kind of hanging on the stage. And some people are playing on some songs, some are playing on others. And, you know, after a while, someone says, “Hey, I want to play on that one too.” And they jump in. When I go to a concert, I have a short attention span. Even if it’s a band I love. Sometimes I’m kind of like, “All right, I’ve seen this. I’m good. Let’s go.” So, if you have that sort of attention span, it’s wonderful for you, because you’re getting little spurts of a couple songs.

Primus is obviously not Led Zeppelin-level famous, of course, but the band has been successful for decades now. It’s particularly notable given the quirkiness of the sound. Why does it work?

You know, it’s hard for me to put my finger on, but I’m assuming that there’s something out there that appeals to people that’s maybe different or weird or something. And then just over time, somehow, it’s kept grabbing people because maybe it wasn’t part of a trend. It was very weird. So, it wasn’t like the whole world was gravitating towards it. I would have never imagined [it could happen] when I first got in this band. My favorite bands were, like, the Dead Kennedys and Frank Zappa. If we could even get to the level of the Dead Kennedys, I would have been, “That’s amazing!” Just on the level of that many people hearing the band or knowing about it. Luckily, I was young and didn’t have many goals.

You really became prominent in the alt-rock, Lollapalooza era. But you’ve been a lot more enduring than a lot of other bands from that tour. Jane’s Addiction has broken up several times and has really not put out much new music through the years. Rage Against the Machine has barely done anything. Those were bands I would have bet on if somebody said, “OK, who’s going to still be here and touring consistently?” What’s kept Primus together?

I think the easy answer is we don’t know any better. We don’t know how to do anything else for the most part. There’s nothing else I wanted to do. I think, you know, some of those bands you mentioned, maybe they had so much success that they sort of had a little bit of a cushion to step away from it for a bit. And then it never came back together. Or, you know, some bands ended [up] with some drug issues. In the music world, there’s a million different avenues for people to be eccentric and not get along for weird personality reasons. And I think we’ve always just kind of looked at it like, we love doing this.

You’ve been able to fit in with any number of scenes or festivals. There’s not a lot of bands from the Lollapalooza era that also could have been on Ozzfest, for example, and then moved into the jammier type of scene that defined the early Bonnaroo lineups. Do you think that that versatility or appeal to different crowds has been part of it as well?

Yeah, definitely. I think in the beginning that was sort what we did. When we started, it was the kind of thing where you would play in clubs and just try to get gigs. We were able to get onto a lot of different things. I remember one weekend … we played Thursday night with Schoolly D, Friday night with the Sea Hags and then Sunday with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. And it kind of just all worked.

You closed the Lollapalooza ’93 set in Dallas with a few bars of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets.” And then you did “Thieves” by Ministry in Houston. “Thieves” is way more Lollapalooza, but it’s still a contrast to your basic sound. Meanwhile, Metallica was extremely uncool at that time.

It’s funny, because those two songs actually are things that were rehearsal, and someone just happened to know how to play part of the song, and everyone jumped in for a second, and we looked at each other and laughed. “Oh, yeah, we kind of played it.” And then we’d be on stage, and I’d be like, “Let’s start playing one of them,” and we’d kind of play it. I don’t think we ever practiced any of those. People probably did go, “Did they just play a second of ‘Master of Puppets?’ That’s weird.”

Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde is a subtle but key player in the quirky trio. Credit: Jaime Monzon

You and Les have been locked in the whole time as Primus’ key members, but the drum seat has been in flux. This tour is the first outing for new drummer John Hoffman. Why hasn’t the bond translated to that third guy?

That’s a good question. I think Les and I know that we’ve created this thing, and it’s our thing, and you’d be crazy to ever not keep going with it. I can’t think of a reason why it wouldn’t be fun or something to that extent. But I can’t put myself in other people’s heads.

Primus did a tour covering Rush’s A Farewell to Kings a few years ago. How did learning the entire album impact your style?

When I was learning guitar, I was learning Van Halen and all the metal songs and Judas Priest and everything. And then, with Alex Lifeson, with Rush, that was the first time I was like, “Oh, it’s still rock, but there’s these kind of artsy weird chords to it.” I was such a huge Rush fan. When we were learning all that stuff, it was weird, because that album, there were songs on there I hadn’t heard before. I was like, “Wait, did I never own this album?” I don’t know if I ever actually listened to that record. I just knew most of the songs from Exit Stage Left or live things or something. Learning all that stuff, it was quite an undertaking. The way Rush works is it’s so linear that if you miss one part, you’re screwed, because now you don’t know where you’re at. My first concert was the Moving Pictures tour. I literally had no idea what a concert was, I didn’t know what Rush was — I didn’t know anything. My friend at school was like, “Dude, I got tickets, we’re going to see Rush tonight.” I’m like, “Awesome, I don’t know anything you just said, but let’s check it out.” But, you know, by the end of the night, I was like, “Fuck, this is the coolest shit ever.” There’s an arena, there’s a stage, there’s lights, there’s smoke and it’s like, “What the hell was that?”

$79.50-$129.50, 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 29, Freeman Coliseum, 3201 E. Houston St., (210) 226-1177, freemancoliseum.com.

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This article appears in Apr 16-29, 2025.