Celebrating a birthday over more than one day is always special. But, it’s even more special when you can tour across the U.S. with friends playing music from your prolific and eclectic career. Well, birthday boy Maynard James Kennan has put together an elaborate tour dubbed, Sessanta. Sessanta (meaning sixty) brings collaborative performances with shared band members among the three acts: A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus for his sixtieth celebration. Sessanta follows Cinquanta, a 2014 concert held in Los Angeles in honor of Keenan’s 50th birthday. The format for the tour will find each band performing their own distinctive sets with musicians from the other groups joining in the fun. Billed by Keenan as, “Kind of like ‘We Are the World’ without the bleachers and plastic surgery.”
Instead of traditional sets from each band, musicians from all three groups will be swapping in and out throughout the show. This means one will hear songs from A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, and Primus, with the added twist of potential inter-band jamming and collaborations. The tour is also notable for the limited-edition three-song EP, “Sessanta E.P.P.P,” featuring new music from each band, all co-written by Keenan.

The tours opener hit Boston’s Wang Theatre on April 2nd and after a creative and somewhat hilarious video introduction, which showed Keenan in his Puscifer alias, expressing and demanding that audience members refrain from using any technology during the show or face the consequences of being turned into minced meat and canned into SPAM; the three-hour and 30 song set began with A Perfect Circle. The band, which formed in 1999, was the brainchild of Billy Howerdel, a guitarist who previously worked with bands like Tool. A Perfect Circle explores themes that are darker and more atmospheric than Tool’s work, often touching on social and political issues. Their collective sets were indeed darker and more melodramatic than the others. Highlights from their set included “The Contrarian”, “The Outsider” and of course “Judith” which brought the audience to a fever pitch later in the evening and it was the debut of new Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese taking the drum seat for A Perfect Circle.

Without any formal segues, Primus was next in line to enter the revolving door. Primus, a Californian rock band formed in the mid-1980s, known for their unique blend of genres and led by the ever-quirky bassist and vocalist Les Claypool, took the reigns and treated the audience to a myriad of nuggets that included the eye and ear-opening “Too Many Puppies”, “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “My Name is Mud”. All were fun and the insanity that is Primus was palpable. Primus took it one step further with “Pachyderm”, which featured all three band’s drummers, complete with spotlight “solos” with the song – to which Keenan later gave a nod to the trio and remarked, “They’re pretty good, right?”

Puscifer, last into the revolving door, started as a joke concept by Keenan, and initially appeared in a comedy sketch on Mr. Show. It eventually morphed into a full-fledged musical project known for its experimental sound and darkly humorous themes. Their music blends elements of rock, electronic, and industrial, with Keenan’s distinctive vocals at the forefront. Puscifer’s collective sets proved to be quite intriguing. Keenan was in rare form and his vocals were strong and proud. Together, the band trudged through fan favorites that included, “Man Overboard”, “Bullet Train” and “The Remedy”. The dramatic lighting only added to the mysterious and moody song selections that featured the alluring Carina Round, whose vocals and choreographed dance moves perfectly complemented Keenan’s.

Towards the end of the performance, members of all three bands gathered together on the stage at once to perform all three songs from the three-song EP, “Sessanta E.P.P.P,” As these were brand new songs for all to hear, there was less of a fuss made by the audience. It was clear that the audience was truly listening and trying to take every note in, all while being enveloped by the overwhelming but beautiful light show. Each song was supported with raised fists and a healthy amount of applause.
To end the night, Keenan did give the green light for audience members to take their cellphones out to document the finale, “Grand Canyon”. In the end, it was an impressive performance that included not only exceptional music but cupcakes, birthday hats, Rock’em Sock’em Robots, an elderly chairlift and a pig mask to boot! The show left no stone unturned for the world of edgy alt-rock.
















One Response
This was an amazing show! I’ve seen Tool 5-6 times, APC 3, as a reference point. You can tell that they were all having fun. Crowd loved it. So glad I went, first show in at least 5 years that I’ve been to.