Colonel Les Claypool and His Fearless Flying Frog Brigade 7/9 @ Mississippi Nights

“Are You Ready!!!” exclaimed Les Claypool as he pranced onstage with his Frog Brigade. It was a pretty good question, considering the onslaught of wacky, psychedelic instrumentation the audience was about to endure.

The Primus frontman is riding a wave of success with this side project, after winning the coveted Best Album prize, for Live Set Vol. 1, at the annual Jammy Awards. The Frog Brigade plays as a muscled-up jam band with Claypool’s heavy bass in the forefront, giving both neo-hippies and Primus die-hards something to shout about.

The Frog Brigade’s show is anything but rehearsed, as Claypool and his boys are able to structure their chaos into jams that make perfect sense. “Holy Mackeral” and “Cohibas Esplenditos” from the Les Claypool and the Holy Mackeral album Highball With the Devil kick off the two-hour set .

As with all jam bands, numerous covers found their way into the set. The Frog Brigade are able to distance themselves with the rest of the modern-day hippies by historically selecting some ace songs to interpret, like standards by King Crimson, Tom Waits and the Rolling Stones. Just three songs in, the Frog Brigade charged through a faithful version of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” before shocking everyone with a haunting version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

The encore featured a foot-stomping, backwoods medley of the Primus classics “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver” and “Wynonna’s Big Brown Beaver,” Washed in psychedelia, “Tomorrow Never Knows” by the Beatles was a wicked end to a great show. Les Claypool may appear to be barking mad, but beneath the costumes and lyrics about beavers eating Taco Bell, he knows what he’s doing.

Doves w/ the Webb Brothers 6/21 @ The Galaxy

Last fall, the British Press dubbed the latest group of promising guitar bands, like Coldplay and Turin Brakes, the “New Acoustic Movement.” Unfortunately, Doves fell into this group, even though their music is miles ahead of these worthy bands.

Hailing from Manchester, England, Doves are just about the most exciting band to surface in the last two years. The group began as the acid-house act Sub Sub, releasing one album in the footsteps of The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays. A few years later, brothers Jez and Andy Williams regrouped with their leader Jimi Goodwin and changed the band’s name and direction.

Now called Doves and boasting a more straightforward sonic rock attack, the trio has enjoyed overwhelming success with their debut, Lost Souls. They have earned praise from the Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, and the Dandy Warhols while landing the prestigious support slot during Oasis’ mammoth Wembley Stadium gigs.

And, yes, Doves landed in St. Louis on June 21. “We like your city,” said Goodwin. “We went to the Arch today and the baseball game last night. St. Louis is cool.” The band concentrated on Lost Souls material, opening with “Firesuite” and continuing with a commanding “Catch the Sun” and a beautiful version of the finger-plucked “A House.”

Fresh off work on their second studio album, Doves were eager to debut some new songs. Two new gems, “Satellite” and “Hit the Ground” proved to be the evening’s highlights, with the latter closely resembling Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” They capped the night off with a rollicking run though of “Spaceface” from their Sub Sub years.

By all accounts, the gig was storming, and the best St. Louis has seen since Neil Young came through town in 1999. Let’s hope they liked the town enough to come back and play “Satellite” and “Hit the Ground” again.