Shreveport Mayor Declares ‘John Hoffman Day’ As Primus Rocks Drummer’s Hometown

When Primus announced their Onward & Upward Tour, John “Hoffer” Hoffman likely circled yesterday’s date on the calendar. The trio played their new drummer’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana and the both the band and local officials honored the special occasion.

Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux proclaimed July 29th to officially be “John Hoffman Day” in the city. Hoffman, who was selected by bassist Les Claypool and guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde to replace Tim “Herb” Alexander, received the official document on Tuesday ahead of Primus’ concert at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. The drummer joined the trio earlier this year after beating out over 6,200 applicants from across the globe.

Hoffer took the stage to raucous applause from the hometown crowd and laid down the beat for “Restin’ Bones.” Many in the audience were sporting the drummer’s signature white sunglasses, which were distributed to fans entering the venue. Claypool and LaLonde joined in on The Brown Album classic to kick off the 15-song concert.

“Where did you get all the sunglasses?” Claypool joked soon after. “I will say that Hoffer has turned us on to the finer things in Shreveport. Because of that, I now have a big 20-piece selection from Popeye’s waiting for me on the bus,” the bassist continued and shouted out the catering at the show. He then turned his attention to Hoffman, stating:

“So I know you all know the whole story — 583,000 drum submissions from all over the galaxy and we chose your homeboy. Actually, we didn’t choose him, he worked his fucking ass off because we didn’t think he was going to get the gig to be honest with you. We thought for sure Gergo was gonna [get it]. But he just came in and he’s a bad motherfucker and one of the nicest human beings I’ve met in a long time.

“I hope you’re proud of him because we’re proud to have him. And he’s a taskmaster! He’s making us play all these damn songs we haven’t played in 30 years and this is one of them.”

Primus then lit into “Shake Hands With Beef.” Next, the band reprised their Ozzy Osbourne tribute rolled out a week prior by teasing “Crazy Train” within “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers,” while images of the Black Sabbath frontman were displayed on the screens behind the band.

The show also featured the tour debut of “The Seven” from the band’s 2017 album, The Desaturating Seven. Another memorable moment came towards the end of the concert, when Primus brought out Hoffer’s younger brother, “Machete Eddy”, to play a second drum kit on “Too Many Puppies.” The siblings crushed it behind the kits on the Frizzle Fry gem.

Primus went on to link “Welcome To This World” and “My Name Is Mud” and closed the set with “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver.” A “Southbound Pachyderm” encore wrapped up the night.

Stream an audience recording of Primus’ Shreveport show shared by zeegrizzle and view fan-shot footage below: