Come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of Pure Imagination. That was the song, fittingly playing as concertgoers left the Mutated Mini Fest at the Riviera on Saturday night. It was a black lit evening affair filled with creepy costumes, mangled masks and psychedelic sounds courtesy of Les Claypool and the rest of The Oddity Faire.
Claypool came on stage looking a little Willy Wonka and a little Clockwork Orange. The long-nosed mask and derby were accented by banners of mutated half-animal, half-human heads, which are also featured on the cover of his new album, “Of Fungi and Foe.”
The set began as Claypool slowly paced the stage, bass, looking to be an extension of his own body, strapped across his shoulder. He acknowledged the roar of the crowd, which featured the likes of hippies to metal heads to someone wearing a weird large dog costume. The band started with an old favorite, “Buzzards of Green Hill” which got the crowd into a set-list that lasted over 90 minutes.
The energy from the crowd was pretty high the entire show. This was especially true when Claypool brought out his Whamola, a very rare bass instrument played with a drumstick, for the song, appropriately named, “Whamola”. His arsenal overflowed throughout the show as he also jammed on his dobro bass for “Booneville Stomp”, inciting the sea of people into a torrent. After the song ended, it was percussionists Mike Dillon and Paulo Baldi’s turn to take over. A staple of every Les Claypool show, they treated the crowd to an explosive percussion battle with their expansive drum and xylophone set-up.
The evening seemed to peak with “Cosmic Highway”, a long psychedelic trip to a place that only Les Claypool and his soothing bass guitar can take you. The trip that was the Oddity Faire ended with a treat for long-time fans. Claypool serenaded the crowd with an encore of “D’s Diner”, a familiar end for anyone who has been up all night chasing away sobriety.
The Faire also featured DeVotchKa, whom have appeared on the soundtrack for the film Little Miss Sunshine. They played an interesting mix of American folk rock with Eastern European overtones. The crowd embraced most songs with melodic clapping and dancing to the beat of the music. However, some slower songs tended to lose the audience’s attention. Also performing at the faire was the mostly inaudible def poetry progressive rock of Saul Williams and Secret Chief 3.