Photo credit: Matt Riley

The Claypool Lennon Delirium
Wilma Theatre
Missoula , Mont.
July 26

It’s a match made in some Tim Burton-esque version of heaven: the o€-kilter musical genius who is one of rock’s weirdest ambassadors, Les Claypool, mashed up with the younger, avant-garde leanings of Sean Lennon. They may not share a family name (though they do look oddly alike), but they’re cut from the same musical cloth, and fortunately they assembled The Claypool Lennon Delirium to prove it. Some combinations of massive talent bounce o€ each other like oil and water, but CLD’s stop at Missoula, Mont.’s Wilma Theatre was a testament to the veracity of this two-headed psych-rock beast.

The four-piece took the stage to the backing track of their own song “There’s No Underwear in Space” and charged through both movements of “Cricket and the Genie.” Lennon was clearly having issues with his guitar and was inaudible at first, but the problem was resolved in time for his talkbox-laden lead on “Breath of a Salesman.” Claypool has already found his home in Montana—making a stop in Missoula with Primus
for the last three years would suggest that it’s more than just the state’s fishing reputation that brings him back—but the crowd response to Lennon’s first solo of the night let it be known that he was equally
welcome in Big Sky country.

Claypool bit into his first gargantuan bass solo during a rendition of the Les Claypool Frog Brigade’s “Up on the Roof,” trading lines with keys player Mark Ramos Nishita, as drummer Paul Baldi held down the rhythm. Claypool’s distinct virtuosity is an unmistakable stamp on all his projects but, here, he also exercises restraint as a supporting player, handing Lennon the reins for tunes like “Animals” from the guitarist’s other band, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger. A contorted synthesizer solo led the sordid jam going into “Mr. Wright,” and Claypool brought the stand-up bass and bow out for an appropriately hallucinatory take on the early Pink Floyd tune “Astronomy Domine.”

The best covers were yet to come though, as Lennon paid homage to his father’s pioneering psychedelia wit  a churning interpretation of The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” to end the set. Claypool emerged alone to begin the encore, playing some of the Frog Brigade tune “Running the Gauntlet” before the rest of the band joined him for the raucous Primus crowd favorite “Southbound Pachyderm” that sprawled out into a wild jam, testifying to the eccentric talents of both frontmen.