Sessanta: A 60th Birthday Celebration for Maynard James Keenan in the Woodlands!

Primus, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle performed at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, TX on April 13th, 2024 for their Sessanta Tour in celebration of Maynard James Keenan’s 60th birthday!

Primus is an American rock band originating from El Sobrante, California and was formed in 1984. Their current lineup consists of vocalist/bassist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry “Ler” LaLonde, and drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander.

primusville.com

Puscifer is an American rock band originating from Los Angeles and was formed in 2003 by Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. Their current lineup consists of vocalist Maynard James Keenan, guitarist/vocalist Carina Round, guitarist Mat Mitchell, bassist Greg Edwards, drummer Gunnar Olsen.

puscifer.com

A Perfect Circle is an American rock band originating from Los Angeles, California and was formed in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist Maynard James Keenan, lead guitarist Billy Howerdel, rhythm guitarist James Iha, bassist Matt McJunkins, drummer Josh Freeze.

aperfectcircle.com

**A Perfect Circle Tour exclusive poster**

Sessanta is a resurrection, and expansion, of the 2014 Los Angeles event, Cinquanta, which was originally a one-time only celebration. Much like that fabled evening, which commemorated Maynard James Keenan’s landmark 50th birthday, Sessanta celebrates the Puscifer and A Perfect Circle frontman as he turns 60.

Sessanta’s unique format sees the musicians from the trio of bands joining each other’s performances throughout the concert. While each group will have their own distinctive set, the players will continually transform as the night unfolds.

Maynard stated:
“It took some massaging, and some long days in rehearsal, but we managed to seamlessly pull off this three-song rotation at Cinquanta, my 50th birthday shows, at The Greek Theatre in 2014. Bands aren’t used to simultaneously sharing the stage with other bands, but if anyone can do it, it’s Primus, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer.”

Les stated:
“What a glorious notion of combining three bands that all start with the letter ‘P’ for a tribute to Maynard Keenan’s 60th trip around the sun. I’ve known Maynard for more than three decades and I have to say, I’ve yet to meet a more creative, ambitious and industrious human being; that is assuming he is actually human. Often his perspective and output are more ‘extraterrestrial’ than that of this planet so, It wouldn’t surprise me if he has some sort of ‘Prometheus’ type DNA deep in his marrow.”

Maynard jokingly said as he added new dates (including the date for this review):
“Although I am slowly going deaf with all the rock song touring, and the aging and what not, the thunderous cacophony of whining and crying from the places we aren’t playing Sessanta was heard loud and clear. But instead of being a grumpy old fart and calling you all a Waahhhmbulance, we decided to book a few more shows. Thank you @poopoopeepee69, @blunthole420 and many others for changing our minds. U.S. only though. I gotta be in bed by 7:30.”

As you should know if you’ve been following Maynard’s bands, is they always implement a strict no phone policy. There’s no exceptions and if you don’t comply you will be immediately ejected from the venue.

Maynard explaining his strict no phone policy:
“It’s rude. Not to us, I mean, I just did a whole photoshoot. I’m not afraid of cameras and I’m not afraid of phones. I’ve got mine right here. It’s a very useful tool.”

“There’s no way you can actually capture what’s happening in that live moment on a phone. You’re missing the opportunity of actually absorbing in real time what’s happening. The art of storytelling. Being able to actually recount what you saw without having to record it. Training your brain to live in the moment and see the thing, but more importantly, stop annoying the person behind you. It’s annoying, it’s distracting and it’s distracting for us, too. So put it the fuck away, grow the fuck up. And at the end of the show, we usually let you film a song, so you get your souvenir.”

Maynard said:
“Stay with us. Stay present. If you can’t do that for three hours, you have a problem and need to see somebody. Keep it in your pocket. At the end of the show we’ll let you film the last song. Don’t annoy your neighbors. This is going to be fucking amazing. It’s a fucking birthday party!”

A Perfect Circle opened the evening promptly at 8 pm. There was no openers so when they said the show started at that time they meant it. The highly captivating band started with “The Package“, the first track off their sophomore album “Thirteenth Step“.

Second they performed “Disillusioned“, one of the singles from their latest full length release “Eat the Elephant“. If you’re familiar with this song you already know you’re about to witness the softest part of the evening. Two minutes into this beautiful ballad it slows down, with Maynard guiding you with his soft voice through this trance before it starts to pick right back up.

Immediately following, they wheeled out a hospital cart decorated with birthday balloons to present Keenan a single cupcake with a candle to blow out. Puscifer’s co-vocalist Carina Round joined them on stage to perform a breathtaking rendition of “The Contrarian“.

Primus took the stage to an uproar of applause after that gentle start of the evening. Les Claypool is arguably one of the best bass players of our time. With his distinct sound and signature unconventional style of string-slapping, he immediately won over the crowd. Whether you knew who he was prior to this evening, you knew who he was following this performance. His bass playing is more astonishing in person than it is in the studio. It’s very impressive how he can belt off his vocals while still maintaining his relentless percussion of the bass.

They started off with “Those Damned Blue-Collared Tweakers“. As the alarm sounding intro started going off the bass virtuoso started just slapping away. This is a typical intro into their set. I mean if it isn’t broke then why fix it. Second was another fan favorite and typical starter “Too Many Puppies“. This had everyone singing “Too many pup-pup-pup-pup-pup-pup-puppies“! The last song of their first set was “John the Fisherman“, which was a pleasant surprise because it wasn’t played at the prior dates. This song began with with intro to Rush’s “YYZ”.

Last but not least, Puscifer emerged unto the stage. Typically, their show’s are tied to the release of a a new album so they base a fresh setlist off of that. For Sessanta, that obviously wasn’t the case. So they put together a compilation of hits just as the other bands did. For their first set, they pulled “Man Overboard” and “Horizons” from their 2011 release “Conditions of My Parole“. They concluded this set with “Indigo Children” from their 2007 debut album “V Is For Vagina“.

Now for the fastest paced set of the evening. Ironically, Primus started with “Jerry Was A Racecar Driver“. Expressing how he “drove so god damn fast“. This got everyone off their feet! I don’t know how anyone could stand still to this song. With Les Claypool shouting “GO!” almost mid way then following with “Hee hee hee! Dog will hunt!“. At this rate they weren’t slowing down any time soon. Primus continued with their most revered hit single “My Name Is Mud“. Claypool started blasting his bass strings with his thumb, making it sputter though the amphitheater and pulsate through the crowd like a machine gun! This was their highlight of the evening and left the crowd in sheer awe of their performance. Following, Keenan scrolled the staircase and performed vocals for “Tommy the Cat” alongside the psych-metal legends!

Puscifer and A Perfect Circle rotated two sets back and forth with one another. They played some of their greatest hit such as “The Hollow” (performed with Primus drummer Tim Alexander), “Weak and Powerless“, “The Humbling River“, and “Judith“. Also note that Claypool, dawning a pig mask and wielding an upright bass, joined in for “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish“.

Primus played their last original song of the evening, “Southbound Pachyderm“. This groovy track was performed with all three drummers from the bands!

The bands also debuted all three songs together from their Sessanta E.P.P.P., a recently released EP featuring new songs from each band.

For the last song of this glorious evening, all three bands joined each other on stage for their finale performance of “Grand Canyon“. This was truly a spectacle to see. I’ve never witnessed anything quite like it!