Scottish Indie-rockers Primal Scream made a rare stop in Los Angeles Sunday night, playing to a sold out crowd at The Fonda theatre in Hollywood. Frontman Bobby Gillespie, his accent difficult to understand for most of the audience, looked dapper in his pink suit and pointy black shoes, channeling a younger version of Mick Jagger with his charismatic presence.
The set list was surprisingly heavy on the band’s more recent material, with some glaring omissions evident. That said, they did eventually play favorites from their seminal LP Screamadelica (three of the four encore songs were from the album) as well as representing their most sonically challenging period from the ’90s, dropping the screeching classic that is “Swastika Eyes” between more country-tinged numbers “It’s Alright, It’s OK” and “Country Girl.” Anyone in the crowd not familiar with the band’s classic LP XTRMNTR would have been somewhat shocked when this one sounded. Gillespie finished the song by reciting, rapid-fire, the lyrics to “Exterminator,” as if he just had to get it in there somehow.
Before going off for the encore, they roused the crowd up by playing possibly their most recognisable track, anything from Screamadelica aside, in the form of “Rocks”. Naturally, this left the crowd baying for more, which they duly delivered by dropping “Higher Than The Sun,” “Loaded” and, to close, “Movin’ On Up.”
Set List
2013
Jailbird
Burning Wheel
Shoot Speed/Kill Light
Relativity
Damaged
River Of Pain
Goodbye Johnny
Autobahn 66
It’s Alright, It’s OK
Swastika Eyes
Country Girl
Rocks
-encore-
Higher Than The Sun
I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have
Loaded
Movin’ On Up