It's hard to know exactly what to expect when Maynard James Keenan is on stage. With Tool and A Perfect Circle, he has long established himself as one of the rock world's most distinctive front figures, but with Puscifer, he takes things even further away from the traditional rock concert. Here it's as much about theater, absurd humor, and visual art as it is about the music itself.
And it certainly was a show out of the ordinary when Puscifer kicked off their European tour in Stockholm on Sunday evening. For better and for worse.
A dazzling start
Already from the opening Thrust and the subsequent Self Evident it's clear that Puscifer isn't offering an ordinary concert. The dark, pulsating rhythms set the tone for the evening, while the stage, built on two levels, gives the performance an almost theatrical framing. Maynard James Keenan and Carina Round begin on the upper level before they join the rest of the band below.
After that comes Bad Wolf, which I unfortunately miss since the camera equipment has to be deposited in the cloakroom after the first two songs.
Everything is framed by a light show that is so beautiful it's almost ridiculous. Beams of light cut through the smoke, sweep over the audience, and create cinematic silhouettes of the musicians. At several moments, the vertical light rays form something resembling intense rain over the stage. It's breathtakingly beautiful.
As a photographer, however, it’s a nightmare. The musicians are often backlit or in half-darkness, and the lighting is clearly created for the overall experience rather than the camera lens. In addition, the stage construction and light placement at times make it hard to see what is happening, especially if you're not standing far forward.
But visually, this is without a doubt one of the most striking concert productions I’ve experienced in a very long time.
Musically close to perfection
If the light impresses, the sound is at least as remarkable. It's simply exceptionally good.
Every instrument has its place in the mix, from the deep basslines to the electronic details and aggressive guitar bursts. Despite the music's many layers, it never becomes muddy. On the contrary, the separation between the instruments is almost unbelievably clear.
Songs like Normal Isn't, The Algorithm and The Quiet Parts show off the band's darker and more electronic side, while Bullet Train to Iowa and The Remedy bring a different kind of energy. Especially the latter is a welcomed feature with its intensity and distinctive character.
Maynard James Keenan and Carina Round complement each other in an almost magical way. Their voices intertwine in harmonies that at one moment make the music soar, only to transition into something much darker the next. Round is also a fantastic stage personality. When she moves across the stage with the microphone stand in hand, she, together with the lighting, creates some of the evening's most striking moments.
After the intermission, The Humbling River offers one of the concert's most atmospheric moments, while Grand Canyon allows space for the band's more atmospheric and emotional side. Towards the end, the intensity ramps up again with Conditions of My Parole before A Public Stoning brings the evening to a close.
It’s a well-composed setlist where the new material gets plenty of space without older favorites being forgotten.
Musically, there is very little to criticize. Vocals, instruments, and sound production hold a level that many larger arena productions can only dream of.
When perfection becomes too perfect
But even though everything sounds and looks fantastic, after a while a strange feeling arises that one is witnessing a meticulously directed theater performance rather than a living rock concert.
The musicians change positions between the stage's two levels, the lighting changes, and the singers move according to what appears to be a carefully planned schedule. At one point, Mat Mitchell and Paul D'Amour are on the upper level while Keenan and Round remain below. A little later, there are new formations and new lighting scenes.
It’s impressively executed, but after a while the stage images start to resemble each other a bit too much.
The feeling is almost like watching a puppet theater where someone behind the scenes is controlling the marionettes with invisible strings. Everything works perfectly, but no one seems to have space to do something unexpected.
Of course, there are elements of madness. At one point Carina Round attacks Maynard, and later they chase each other with toy guns and bows. It's exactly the kind of bizarre humor associated with Puscifer, but even these moments feel so rehearsed that they lose a bit of their charm.
Where did the stage banter go?
Another odd detail is that the band has more or less replaced traditional stage banter with pre-recorded video segments.
The audience is treated, for example, to the segment Bangers and Mashups, with absurd jokes about coffee, food, and other more or less incomprehensible subjects. It certainly fits into Puscifer's twisted universe, but for me, the jokes seldom really land.
The video segments are clearly elaborate and polished, and I assume they're used throughout the tour. That in itself is not strange, but when they replace the personal connection with the audience, it feels rather impersonal.
It feels especially odd since Stockholm is the premiere of the European tour. Honestly, a simple "How are you doing, Stockholm?" from Maynard would have been enough to create some presence.
Nor does the ten-minute intermission in the middle of the concert feel particularly justified. When the whole show is just over an hour and a half, the break mostly interrupts the momentum the band has built up. The only ones who possibly fully appreciated the intermission were the bar staff.
The mobile ban – relief or excessive control?
Puscifer also has a strict mobile phone ban, something that has become increasingly common with Maynard James Keenan's various projects.
The intention is understandable. It’s nice to avoid a sea of glowing screens and instead experience the concert with your own eyes. But the question is whether it has perhaps gone a bit too far.
When someone in the audience takes out their mobile, security is quickly on the scene and demands that the recording is deleted. The rules are clearly taken very seriously.
Even before the concert starts, I experience how strict the ban is. When I try to photograph the setlist by the stage edge, I’m immediately told that mobiles are forbidden. The SLR camera is not an option since the focal length of the lens is much too long to capture the setlist up close.
And although the mobile ban is surely appreciated by many, I don’t notice that magical effect on the audience you sometimes hear about. Rather, parts of the audience look oddly motionless, almost like dead fish.
To automatically equate the absence of mobile phones with greater audience engagement feels like a rather simplistic conclusion. Sometimes you just want to capture a brief memory from a really good concert.
An impressed but controlled audience
The audience clearly appreciates what they’re seeing. Between songs there are hearty rounds of applause and cheers, and at one moment someone enthusiastically shouts "Outstanding!" into the venue.
But the truly electric atmosphere never materializes. The applause is appreciative, but hardly deafening. Perhaps the tightly controlled performance rubs off on the audience, or maybe this is simply how a Puscifer audience behaves.
There is also plenty of room in the venue, and the concert is far from sold out. Possibly this too contributes to the atmosphere never quite reaching a boiling point.
A fantastic concert that lacks a bit of humanity
Summing up the evening, it’s still hard to be anything but impressed.
The sound is among the best I’ve heard in a very long time, the vocals from Maynard James Keenan and Carina Round are fantastic, and the light show is at times so beautiful that it almost takes over the whole experience.
Technically, it’s a total success.
But a concert is not just about perfection. It’s also about presence, communication between artists and audience, and the feeling that anything could in fact happen.
Puscifer delivers an incredibly well-produced performance, but sometimes I wish someone would just dare to cut the strings of the marionettes and let the music live its own life for a while.
Because when everything is so perfect that nothing can go wrong, there is also a risk that some of the magic disappears.
Final verdict: A visually magnificent and musically exceptional concert that impresses more than it moves. Puscifer shows how far a live production can go, but also how little spontaneity can remain when every second is planned.
