“Further proof that the gear doesn’t matter when you have the skills to pay the bills”: When their gear didn’t turn up for a festival performance, Primus played brand-new Fender guitars from Guitar Center – with the tags still on

Les Claypool of Primus performs at Ford Amphitheater on August 24, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
(Image credit: Thomas Cooper/Getty Images)

2024 Year in Review: What do you do when you get to the venue but your gear has been delayed in transit? Unless you’re able to borrow what you need from another band, you’ll probably have to visit the nearest guitar shop.

Which is precisely what Primus did when they arrived to play Sick New World Festival in April, with their equipment running late due to extreme weather.

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Amit Sharma

Amit has been writing for titles like Total GuitarMusicRadar and Guitar World for over a decade and counts Richie Kotzen, Guthrie Govan and Jeff Beck among his primary influences as a guitar player. He's worked for magazines like Kerrang!Metal HammerClassic RockProgRecord CollectorPlanet RockRhythm and Bass Player, as well as newspapers like Metro and The Independent, interviewing everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy to Slash and Jimmy Page, and once even traded solos with a member of Slayer on a track released internationally. As a session guitarist, he's played alongside members of Judas Priest and Uriah Heep in London ensemble Metalworks, as well as handled lead guitars for legends like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, The Faces) and Stu Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, G3).