Photos & Review by Max Stewart

Maynard James Keenan sure knows how to throw a party. To celebrate his 60th birthday, the Tool singer brought together two of his other bands (A Perfect Circle & Puscifer) and his buddies in Primus for a month-long celebratory musical tour. What an amazing idea and a great excuse to have a party and play some quality tunes. These three bands do not come from your three-chords-and-the-truth, formulaic rock schools of thought. Each has a strange and fascinating quality that draws listeners in and becomes even more enticing in a live format. Unique time signatures, bizarre lyrics, dark and sometimes silly themes… it is a wonderfully-odd but satisfying journey when watching each band perform. All three playing together made for a whimsical and enjoyable night.

The show started promptly at 8:00 pm with an outlandish and hilarious PSA video reminder by Keenan to attendees to not take pictures of videos with their phones or they would be tossed into the meat grinder used to make canned Spam. A Perfect Circle then took the stage for their first tour since 2018, with the thunderous “The Package” setting a mighty tone for the evening. Although James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins is not part of this tour on guitar, Greg Edwards more than made up for it. Billy Howerdel is the master at haunting and ethereal guitar parts that add so much color to the band’s vibrant sound. One of the other focal points is Josh Freese, the drumming phenom who has seemingly played on every rock record of the last 30 years and is now a permanent member of Foo Fighters. He elevates every song he plays on and is awe-inspiring to see perform.

Keenan‘s adaptive and captivating vocals thrived during the course of the night, despite him having to play double duty in between A Perfect Circle and Puscifer shifts. Puscifer finely weave between low key, spacey grooves and experimental and melodic rock. Carina Round‘s soothing voice compliments Keenan with ease, and songs like “Flippant”, “The River” and “The Remedy” showcased the band’s brilliance and prove the quality AND quantity of creative output Keenan can put together. I mean, he is in three successful bands.

Primus are uniquely there own in the world of music, lead by the fearless frog leader, Les Claypool. Claypool’s bass sound and unmistakable vocals come alive when he plays with Tim Alexander (drums) and Ler LaLonde (bass). The band brought some heaters to the chilly, wet evening in Georgia, including “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver”, “My Name is Mud”, “Too Many Puppies”, and Keenan providing guest vocals on “Tommy the Cat” (dubbed ‘Maynard the Cat’). Claypool noted that the solar eclipse happened to take place at the same time of Keenan’s 60th trip around the sun, while joking about some maniacal political conspiracy theorists.

The concept of the show was a perfect, no-down-time approach that kept the audience engaged and entertained throughout the three-hour event. Essentially, there were multiple phases of songs and after each act played an average of 2-4 tunes, the members would hang out on couches on stage risers in between sets while watching the other bands play. It is a novel idea for a multi-band bill which kept the setlist fresh and the fans totally tuned in at every turn. It is not your typical ‘first band of the night plays for an hour and heads to the Four Seasons’ tour, rather the show actually felt communal. It was incredible to see Keenan rocking out to Primus. It was as if we were at a fancy keg party and the audience got to partake in the fun.

No birthday party is complete without a clown, and Atlanta’s own Puddles Pity Party sat in to sing a stellar cover of A Perfect Circle’s “The Hollow”. Don’t let the clown outfit fool you, Michael Geier‘s baritone voice is no joke and he can command nearly any song he performs. He has become a staple of Atlanta, it was a nice treat to see him join the band.

Keenan was clearly having a blast, playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots and ping pong with Round and Puscifer guitarist Mat Mitchell, and ending the night with a rock-paper-scissors match with Josh Freese.

The night ended with three new songs from each band, featured on the Sessanta E.P.P.P., including A Perfect Circle’s “Kindred”, Puscifer’s “No Angel”, and Primus’ “Pablo’s Hippos”(which featured Keenan on vocals). At the end of the night, Keenan showed sincere appreciation for the fans that came out and gratitude for fellow bandmates. The final song included all musicians on stage for Pusicfer’s “Grand Canyon”, an excellent way to encapsulate the theme of the night and top off a hell of a birthday party.

Sessanta Setlist – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre – Alpharetta, GA – 4/9/24

• A Perfect Circle
  • The Package
  • Disillusioned
  • The Contrarian
• Primus
  • Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers
  • Too Many Puppies
  • Sgt. Baker
  • Follow the Fool
• Puscifer
  • Galileo
  • Tiny Monsters
  • Indigo Children
• Primus
  • Jerry Was a Race Car Driver
  • My Name Is Mud
  • Tommy the Cat (with Maynard James Keenan / ‘Maynard the Cat’ on guest vocals)
• Puscifer
  • Flippant
  • Momma Sed
  • Bullet Train to Iowa
  • The Underwhelming
• A Perfect Circle
  • The Hollow (with Puddles Pity Party)
  • So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
  • Weak and Powerless
  • The Outsider
• Puscifer
  • The Humbling River
  • The Remedy
• A Perfect Circle
  • Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
  • Judith
• Primus
  • Southbound Pachyderm
• Sessanta E.P.P.P
  • Kindred (A Perfect Circle)
  • No Angel (Puscifer)
  • Pablo’s Hippos (Primus) (with Maynard James Keenan on vocals)
• Puscifer, Primus, A Perfect Circle
  • Grand Canyon (Puscifer cover)