After pandemic-related delays, Primus finally kicked off their Rush tribute tour on Tuesday in Boise, Idaho.
Following a set of their own music, the band performed Rush’s 1977 album A Farewell to Kings in its entirety, which you can watch above. They closed with the extensive “Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage.” The song’s second part, “Cygnus X-1 Book II,” is featured on Hemispheres, the album Primus nearly covered instead of A Farewell to Kings.
“Originally we’d always kind of joked around about doing Hemispheres,” Claypool told Rolling Stone last year. “That record has always had a very big place in my heart and head. But as we got to thinking about the record and how to tackle it — because it’s not going to be an easy feat, on many levels… But we settled on Kings, because A) it was the first Rush record I ever heard and B) it contains ‘Cygnus X-1,’ which has always been my favorite Rush tune. It seems to be a good one for us to tackle; 2112 seemed a little obvious.”
Primus continues the tour Wednesday at the Kettlehouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Montana. The trek lasts through the fall, with major stops at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, and New York City’s Beacon Theater next month.
From Rolling Stone US
