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Holy shit, man.
A Perfect Circle is in my top 5 favorite bands just for their first 2 albums, Puscifer is probably in my top 15. I love Primus, but casually. They're like the fun dude who used to eat glue in the bathroom back in 2nd grade and he's just a good dude to have around the group. Despite never owning their albums, I somehow know their songs inside and out. I forgot this show was coming up and even after a reminder last week, when my buds hit me up today I was still like "Oh snap, that's right!" and it wasn't until I saw Billy Howerdel onstage that I thought "Dude, you're seeing one of your favorite bands of all time" and at that point I let the night take me away.
Each band plays about 3 songs then the next band starts, maybe 15-20 seconds after the previous band's song ends. Everyone is onstage all night. There's couches on either side of the drum riser built for 3 kits. At one point I watched Josh Freese and John Hoffman play ping pong at the front of the stage during Puscifer's set. Hats off to the sound crew, man. That could not have been easy and lord have mercy on that monitor engineer. It sounded so damn good! We were pretty high up (Hard Rock Live, Hollywood) but it didn't matter, the place isn't big and it's acoustically treated.
APC opened, I can't even remember all the songs that were played tonight because I'm still reeling from "The Noose', which might be my 3rd or 4th favorite song of all time and that shit was fucking Gilmour level badass. I know they played "Blue", "The Package", "Weak And Powerless", "The Outsider", "Judith", and two of the newer ones I can't remember the names of, but those were so much better live than the record. Just like Tool, the dynamics in that band in a live setting have so much impact on the music. That goes for both Puscifer and APC.
It dawned on me at one point that Puscifer is, at times, U2ool. In a good way more than a bad way, if anyone can imagine that.
Fractal was on display across the stage and man, it was kinda hard to say “Fractal doesn’t have a sound” last night. I don’t know if Larry is still using Fractal stuff, but Puscifer and APC certainly are and with the amount of effects that were spilling out of those speakers, the fidelity and how fucking perfect it all was, knowing Billy is recreating tones from GSP2101’s and the G-Force, it sounded better than any previous rig I’d heard. @Orvillain would be cumming nails hearing those delays. It’s like they have this blooming, chorused sound to them. So many of those APC albums are pieced together with plug-ins made in the mid-late 90’s, I can only imagine the effort it took to recreate that shit.
APC and Puscifer are so dialed in that Primus kinda stood out as the hippie/earthy band, as my buddy put it, who was there for them primarily, “They were like a garage band in comparison to the other two” and I can side with that. APC and Puscifer has so much technology going on, even if they’re playing the majority of everything live there’s so many crazy sounds. I know Puscifer has all their vocal effects on tape so they don’t have to figure that shit out live, but they’ve rehearsed it so well you’d think it were live. I didn’t pick up on much playback being used, there’s surely some synth stuff going on and the vocal effects, but the drummers were playing all the electronic sounding loops on pads and guitars were doing so much of what I assumed were synths or loops.
Primus is a jazz band now. Hoffman is fantastic, but man, rimshots aren’t a thing with him. I kept checking to see if he was playing traditional grip or not. They still rock it in the rock sections, but when they get jammy it’s so much more jazzy than I’ve ever heard them sound before and it’s just the drums doing it. It was cool watching Freese airdrum much of the Primus set, fill for fill, sitting right behind John on the riser.
Maynard….this is his 61st birthday celebration and fucking a, I am looking forward to 61 after that!!! Outside of Tool in 2021, that was the best I’ve ever heard that man sing. Absolutely incredible. I’m not a Maynard nut hanger, I don’t think he has magic powers, but he is one fucking driven individual and he puts the time into his craft. He wasn’t holding back at ALL last night, no diversions from the heavy parts to save his voice for a year long Tool tour, no laying back on the heavier/longer screams in APC tunes, he fucking went for it and KILLED IT.
AND NO FUCKING PHONES THE WHOLE NIGHT!!!!! From the time we sat down 15 mins before the show until the first note was played there were 4 or 5 different announcements, 2 from the venue then 3 from Maynard. One in video form informing people they would be sent to a meat grinder for pulling their phones out and turned into Spam, the next from the stage through his mic, when he caught someone and told them to put it the fuck in their pocket and leave it there. It’s crazy how much that can change the vibe of the show, not seeing these lit up squares all over the place in front of you, or some asshole holding the phone in your line of sight.
Couple vids from people who risked it-
Last song was “Grand Canyon” by Puscifer with every musician onstage. It was huge. There were also swapping members around all night, as can be seen by Hoffman above playing an APC tune. Everyone looked to be having a blast and without a single audio/technical hiccup, it was fucking incredible.
A Perfect Circle is in my top 5 favorite bands just for their first 2 albums, Puscifer is probably in my top 15. I love Primus, but casually. They're like the fun dude who used to eat glue in the bathroom back in 2nd grade and he's just a good dude to have around the group. Despite never owning their albums, I somehow know their songs inside and out. I forgot this show was coming up and even after a reminder last week, when my buds hit me up today I was still like "Oh snap, that's right!" and it wasn't until I saw Billy Howerdel onstage that I thought "Dude, you're seeing one of your favorite bands of all time" and at that point I let the night take me away.
Each band plays about 3 songs then the next band starts, maybe 15-20 seconds after the previous band's song ends. Everyone is onstage all night. There's couches on either side of the drum riser built for 3 kits. At one point I watched Josh Freese and John Hoffman play ping pong at the front of the stage during Puscifer's set. Hats off to the sound crew, man. That could not have been easy and lord have mercy on that monitor engineer. It sounded so damn good! We were pretty high up (Hard Rock Live, Hollywood) but it didn't matter, the place isn't big and it's acoustically treated.
APC opened, I can't even remember all the songs that were played tonight because I'm still reeling from "The Noose', which might be my 3rd or 4th favorite song of all time and that shit was fucking Gilmour level badass. I know they played "Blue", "The Package", "Weak And Powerless", "The Outsider", "Judith", and two of the newer ones I can't remember the names of, but those were so much better live than the record. Just like Tool, the dynamics in that band in a live setting have so much impact on the music. That goes for both Puscifer and APC.
It dawned on me at one point that Puscifer is, at times, U2ool. In a good way more than a bad way, if anyone can imagine that.
Fractal was on display across the stage and man, it was kinda hard to say “Fractal doesn’t have a sound” last night. I don’t know if Larry is still using Fractal stuff, but Puscifer and APC certainly are and with the amount of effects that were spilling out of those speakers, the fidelity and how fucking perfect it all was, knowing Billy is recreating tones from GSP2101’s and the G-Force, it sounded better than any previous rig I’d heard. @Orvillain would be cumming nails hearing those delays. It’s like they have this blooming, chorused sound to them. So many of those APC albums are pieced together with plug-ins made in the mid-late 90’s, I can only imagine the effort it took to recreate that shit.
APC and Puscifer are so dialed in that Primus kinda stood out as the hippie/earthy band, as my buddy put it, who was there for them primarily, “They were like a garage band in comparison to the other two” and I can side with that. APC and Puscifer has so much technology going on, even if they’re playing the majority of everything live there’s so many crazy sounds. I know Puscifer has all their vocal effects on tape so they don’t have to figure that shit out live, but they’ve rehearsed it so well you’d think it were live. I didn’t pick up on much playback being used, there’s surely some synth stuff going on and the vocal effects, but the drummers were playing all the electronic sounding loops on pads and guitars were doing so much of what I assumed were synths or loops.
Primus is a jazz band now. Hoffman is fantastic, but man, rimshots aren’t a thing with him. I kept checking to see if he was playing traditional grip or not. They still rock it in the rock sections, but when they get jammy it’s so much more jazzy than I’ve ever heard them sound before and it’s just the drums doing it. It was cool watching Freese airdrum much of the Primus set, fill for fill, sitting right behind John on the riser.
Maynard….this is his 61st birthday celebration and fucking a, I am looking forward to 61 after that!!! Outside of Tool in 2021, that was the best I’ve ever heard that man sing. Absolutely incredible. I’m not a Maynard nut hanger, I don’t think he has magic powers, but he is one fucking driven individual and he puts the time into his craft. He wasn’t holding back at ALL last night, no diversions from the heavy parts to save his voice for a year long Tool tour, no laying back on the heavier/longer screams in APC tunes, he fucking went for it and KILLED IT.
AND NO FUCKING PHONES THE WHOLE NIGHT!!!!! From the time we sat down 15 mins before the show until the first note was played there were 4 or 5 different announcements, 2 from the venue then 3 from Maynard. One in video form informing people they would be sent to a meat grinder for pulling their phones out and turned into Spam, the next from the stage through his mic, when he caught someone and told them to put it the fuck in their pocket and leave it there. It’s crazy how much that can change the vibe of the show, not seeing these lit up squares all over the place in front of you, or some asshole holding the phone in your line of sight.
Couple vids from people who risked it-
Last song was “Grand Canyon” by Puscifer with every musician onstage. It was huge. There were also swapping members around all night, as can be seen by Hoffman above playing an APC tune. Everyone looked to be having a blast and without a single audio/technical hiccup, it was fucking incredible.
