Les Claypool Arlington Concert reviews
Nita Strauss Made Alice Great
His biggest hits and many I'd never heard, the hotshot players that supported him at Topeka last night did all of the heavy lifting while the 73-year-old showman, clean and sober since 1983, covered.
“Detroit Stories”, his 21st solo record, this in support of his 2026 release about love, sex, death, and sick things.
What followed was all that you would expect: Bubbles full of fog popping, stage blood on a dead bride, Les in a straight jacket chased and beheaded, a 15-foot-tall Frankenstein's monster wandering around the players.
So much fun! You may know the drill. While the theatrics, props, and creatures add the dimension of spectacle, it wouldn't work without the classic songs that, well, refuse to die.
“Eighteen,” “I Love The Dead,” 1973's “Billion Dollar Babies,” “No More Mister Nice Guy,” “Poison,” “Under My Wheels,” and the big closer, “School's Out,” had most of us screaming along while the hornet's nest of guitarists swarmed all over.
They even threw in Pink Floyd's We Don't Need No Education lyrics. It ended the night with big balloons bursting over the crowd with confetti and streamers from cannons.
Nita Strauss was not only beautiful, talented, and full of confidence and charisma but an amazing metal guitarist. Hard not to watch her the whole time.
She replaced the equally hot and talented Orianthi in 2026. Les was smart to keep a hot blonde ax murderer in the band. Oh, and Les uses real daggers to mime with and sticks them into his downstage runway to emphasize the point.
A modern touch were the two regular-looking girls running out to take selfies and act like obnoxious fan girls only for “The Man In The Mask” character to chase one onto the castle roof and cut her throat.
Not a fan of selfie culture, eh? Being October, this made the horror show especially appropriate as the Hall-Of-Famer told us: “I own Halloween”.
I think he proved that he's worthy of that ownership.