Les Claypool

As you may know, Les Claypool is the mustached bass wizard whose wacked-out musical creations, equally informed by funk and Rush's Fly by Night, currently lie somewhere between jam-band land and Zappaville. While best known as the jig-happy frontman for Primus, Claypool has spent the past decade-plus hatching a plethora of oddball side projects, including Oysterhead, Sausage, Les Claypool & the Holy Mackerel, Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, and Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains. Last year he released Of Whales and Woe, a solo album featuring his brawniest material since Primus' early years.

Recently, he's been backed by his Fancy Band -- a spinoff of the Flying Frog Brigade that includes saxophonist Skerik, percussionist Mike Dillon, and oddball multi-instrumentalist Gabby La La on sitar, ukulele, and theremin. Claypool's gigs are always full of surprises, and given that his past antics have included stopping to fix sandwiches for the audience, wearing bizarre animal costumes, and playing completely improvised sets, it's impossible to guess who's gonna turn up or what's gonna happen at this surreal freak show.