Ah Sessanta. The 60th birthday celebration concert tour featuring two of Maynard James Keenan’s bands (A Perfect Circle and Puscifer) and Primus. This little shindig was in Connecticut at Foxwoods on April 5, 2024. If you’ve stumbled upon this without knowing who these bands are, Maynard’s other band is Tool. Primus is fronted by bassist Les Claypool and perhaps you know the South Park theme song? That’s them.

To bring an old school vibe to the show they requested, and claimed to enforce, a no cell phone policy. They didn’t want photos and videos being taken (except for the last song), and threats of immediate ejection kept everyone pretty much in line. “If you can’t go 3 hours without looking at your phone, you need help,” Maynard said.

The show was very cool and unique. While billed as three bands, it wasn’t the typical first act, pause to reset stage; second act, pause to reset stage; headliner. Instead they swapped in and out all night which made for a very cool stage. Three drum kits remained on the riser at all times. Often, two of them were used at once. Because this was a 60^th birthday celebration, they also had chair lifts on each side of the stage which Maynard and others rode up and down throughout the night.

They started with A Perfect Circle songs and it was very cool. Disillusioned was amazing. Unique sounds, his voice was great, and the band was solid. Of course, the band was solid! These are musicians. Guitarist Billy Howerdel was there. James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins is listed as a member but he was not with them which was kind of a bummer for me since I love Smashing Pumpkins. However, drummer Josh Freese was there and that is pretty awesome! You may know him as the new drummer for the Foo Fighters.

If I recall (limited notes due to not wanting to be ejected for phone use) Primus was next. Holy crap can Les play bass. While I knew he was a great bass player, seeing him live for the first time was insane. There are a lot of sounds coming out of that bass that you could mistake for drums, synths or more when listening to a recording. But when you see him live, you can see him manipulate that bass to make some incredible sounds. Up to this point, my 3 favorite live bass players ever were John Myung of Dream Theater, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a dude named Dan Clarke. After tonight, some of them move down a notch. And quit your whining about my list because I’ve never seen Geddy Lee or Paul McCartney live.

I wasn’t familiar with the first set of Primus songs, but all were awesome. Too Many Puppies was played, but can there be too many puppies? They transitioned into Puscifer songs from there and this is the Maynard project I’m least familiar with. It all sounded great though. When Puscifer was done (for now), Primus was back and this was probably my favorite part of the show. They did Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, My Name is Mud, and Tommy the Cat. Impressive. Am I a Primus fan now? I think I may be. Time to start binging on some tunes.

From this point, it was back and forth between Puscifer tunes and A Perfect Circle tunes with the hit Judith ending one of the sets. Primus came back for another song eventually, then they all (or at least a bulk of all musicians) played together a bit as well.

They only took a 10-minute intermission during the night versus the long pauses that usually occur in between bands. This was great. During the 10 minutes, they had a video of an elderly looking Maynard in a wheel chair sleeping, only to wake up and tale a lame dad joke every minute or so. Having 3 bands switching in and out throughout the night was really very cool. Such a great concept that I wouldn’t be sad if others adopted.

During the last song, they did encourage photos and videos. I took a few because why not? But honestly, it was a nice old school feeling to just watch a show and listen, and not have 1000 screens in front of you. Great show! If you have a chance to catch this tour, do it!