The one factor anybody appeared to know going into final evening’s epic South Park birthday bash at Colorado’s Crimson Rocks Amphitheater was that it was going to be wild and bizarre. In honor of the present’s twenty fifth anniversary, the present’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone introduced funk-metal band Primus and Ween collectively for 2 sold-out nights of comedy, mayhem, and singalongs.
They led a rousing “Uncle F**ka,” backed by each bands. The stage was adorned with cutouts of snowy South Park bushes, devices, a number of garden chairs, and a cooler. Even Les Claypool appeared amused. “What the hell is goin’ on right here, man” the Primus bassist requested sooner or later afterward. That was the vibe of the evening.
All through the present, Primus and Ween, plus Parker and Stone, traded performing and sitting onstage to look at their previous associates from the perfect seats in the home. Mickey Melchiondo (“Dean Ween”) confronted down Claypool for a quick but thunderous guitar battle. “That is so cool,” he mentioned. Technically, the primary time Primus, Ween, Parker, and Stone shared a stage was within the Season Two episode “Chef Help,” wherein animated variations of Primus and Ween carried out units on the Stay Help-inspired charity live performance to assist acquit the beloved Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes).
Earlier than South Park first aired in 1997, Parker and Stone requested Primus to file the present’s now-iconic theme music. Final evening, whereas sporting the identical red-striped coat and navy slackers as his animated self within the present’s intro, Claypool carried out three totally different renditions of it: the unique, slowed-down model, the sped-up second recording, and the most recent and quickest one which options Claypool taking part in a jolting Whamola instrument. All of the whereas, stomping goofily across the stage.
The interchanging headliners gave the evening a type of variety-show pleasure. One minute we have been listening to songs from Ween’s The Mollusk, then The Guide of Mormon, then Primus masking Rush’s “Nearer to the Coronary heart.” Laughs stuffed the venue whereas clips from South Park of Kayne West’s obsession with fish sticks and Butters hanging with Awesom-o have been projected onto the enormous boulders cradling the stage.
It wouldn’t have been a South Park occasion with out the presumably too-far jokes and references (but it surely’s South Park, they’ll get away with it, proper?) The complete-band rendition of Sheila Broflovski’s “Blame Canada” had a backdrop of the Canadian flag with an enormous crimson X throughout it. Parker yelled “Joe Biden took our jobs!” within the notable South Park accent, which sounded extra like “Joe Biden tookerder!” (contemplating him and Stone’s lately signed $900 million deal which renews South Park for six extra seasons and 14 films on Paramount+).
The 2 emotional peaks of the evening have been because of Primus led by ringmaster Claypool, who carried out near-recording-sounding variations of “Too Many Puppies” and with assist from Stone voicing Butters throughout “Tommy The Cat.” The reward for these was solidified with chants of “Primus sucks!” from the gang. Whereas Ween might have laid down a too-heavy wah-wah on an prolonged electrical “Voodoo Woman,” issues took a fair stranger flip when Parker and Stone started closing the present dressed as royal court docket performers throughout “The Ballad of Lemmiwinks.”
“It’s been a dream to have the ability to carry out at Crimson Rocks,” Parker sentimentally gushed to the colourful mass of tye-dye-donning followers. And it simply made sense that the evening ended with a unending take of “Boogers and Cum,” and the encore adopted with Workforce America: World Police‘s “America (Fuck Yeah).”
“We have been simply going to have a celebration or one thing to have fun,” Stone advised the gang of their preliminary plans to have fun the massive 25. And the most important celebration was the enjoyment of seeing a few of music and tv’s craziest dudes having a fair higher time than their like-minded viewers.
