The bleached-blond mohawked singer, best known for fronting Tool, is honoring his sixtieth birthday month with the Sessanta tour. It's also a big gift for fans, with Keenan's acts A Perfect Circle and Puscifer — playing together for the first time since his fiftieth birthday — joined by Primus, the indefinable trio fronted by bassist Les Claypool.
Sessanta is closing out with a two-night run at Red Rocks that kicked off last night, April 25 — and, yes, the entire audience sang "Happy Birthday" to Keenan. But while plot twists are welcome in movies and novels, concerts are a different story. As the show was winding down, the members of all three bands were on stage, and the crowd was prepared for an epic, all-in finale of Puscifer's "Grand Canyon," the standard encore seen on set lists throughout the tour. Then Keenan informed us that something was wrong with one of the guitars and sound, and that several amps had blown out. (Whoever was responsible has to be feeling like Mark Wahlberg's character in The Other Guys after he mistakenly shot Derek Jeter during the World Series.) In the end, Primus stepped up to the plate, finishing the show with "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver."
The encore will be the main difference for those attending the second Sessanta concert tonight, as the show is otherwise a well-rehearsed machine, leaving little room for diverging from fixed set lists other than mixing up the order of songs.
All of the bands share the stage the entire show, with those not performing seated on couches perched on elevated stages that also anchor the three drum sets (nice to see drummers getting a little more spotlight for once) or, at one point, playing ping-pong at a table on the stage. Sometimes members of other bands would join in on another set, such as Puscifer's Carina Round joining A Perfect Circle for "The Contrarian." The sets happen interchangeably, with Primus sandwiched between A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, among the three acts. And in keeping with Keenan's much-repeated soapbox, a no-cell-phone policy was enforced throughout the night. As an Adult Swim-style video informed the crowd ahead of the show, those who used phones to record the show would be mixed in a meat grinder with Spam.
Other videos shown at breaks between acts showed Keenan poking fun at his age, wearing makeup and prosthetics that made him appear to be eighty, similar to his promo for Sessanta.
This is the first tour for A Perfect Circle since 2018, and the familiar sonics showcase how Keenan's vision is comprehensive across all three of his bands. It's the id to his ego, with loquacious lyrics that lope through existential crises and critiques of politics and religion (or, in the case of "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish," making it clear that he lives in L.A. with lyrics covering plastic surgery and pageantry). While things can get heavy, those moments are somewhat belied by these lengthy yarns, even if they're anticipated. It doesn't matter that he's shrouded by shadows in the corner: The show is all about Maynard, and Maynard letting out his emotions. That could be more artful if it didn't give the impression of a Vegas casino show at times, such as when Keenan sang the Puscifer song "Momma Sed," distinguished by a giant heart traced by bright-pink lights hanging above the stage.
If A Perfect Circle represents Keenan's more primal self, then it makes sense that he calls Puscifer his "creative subconscious." The band pulls from influences that don't touch his other projects with as heavy a hand, with more electronic and pop connotations as well as tongue-in-cheek humor. Puscifer sees Keenan take more time center stage alongside Carina Round, whose voice matches his in terms of being absolutely angelic, the perfect complement to his poetic lyrics. The two looked as if they'd stepped straight out of the Black Lodge in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and showcased a similar Lynchian ethos in their performance, with strikingly synchronized movements that included rocking back and forth like the witches in MacBeth's opening scene to darting back and forth across the stage. Round proves herself the queen of cool, meanwhile: Not many other people can pull off wearing a tutu around their neck.
Primus was arguably the highlight of the night, and a perfect palate cleanser for the inexhaustibly emotional songs from Keenan's groups. Claypool maintained his status as the preeminent badass of bass, providing a mind-bending solo during "Those Damn Blue-Collared Tweekers." And when he lent his skills to A Perfect Circle's "Judith," he took the performance to a new level of masterful musicianship. In tune with Tim Alexander's drumming and Larry LaLonde's spiraling guitar work, Claypool stomped across the stage with a Cab Calloway attitude throughout his sets while being sure to note: "It's fucking cold out here."
Of course, don't expect any deep cuts in Primus's set: With a show such as Sessanta, the set list was bound to focus on fan favorites and standards you expect to hear across a tour, including "My Name Is Mud," "Sgt. Baker," "Too Many Puppies" and, of course, "Jerry Was a Racecar Driver." Keenan stepped in for a rendition of "Tommy the Cat," for which Claypool replaced the lyrics with "Maynard the Cat."
If you find yourself itching for more Primus, be sure to catch the band on its tour this summer, which will hit Dillon Amphitheater on August 23 and the new Sunset Amphitheater in Colorado Springs on August 24.
See photos of the Sessanta encore below:
Carina Round (left) asked the crowd if anyone knew "Free Bird" during the pause while the amps were out.
Ross Jones
After it was clear that A Perfect Circle and Puscifer's equipment wasn't working, Primus took the stage.
Ross Jones
Find more concerts in Denver on our concert calendar.
