PUSCIFER – LIVE – AT THE OAKDALE THEATER

Local Scene

2022-07-05

PUSCIFER – LIVE – AT THE OAKDALE THEATER

puscifer

Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle brought his band Puscifer to the Oakdale Theater in CT and if I didn’t know it was him I would have thought an imposter took over his body. The last Tool show I was at Keenan stood on a riser near the back of the stage hardly looking at the audience at all. This was a totally different night.

There were many signs all over the theatre and staff mentioned it at the metal detectors, ticket check and when you entered the theatre that taking pictures would lead to immediate removal. To start off the show Keenan appeared on the video screen talking about the making of Spam and how the secret ingredient was the ground up remains of entitled people who thought it was ok to take pictures at the show.

The band led off the set with “Bread and Circus”. Keenan next introduced the band calling them all agents as they were dressed as men in black and an alien theme would be seen through the night. Besides Keenan on vocals, Puscifer includes Carina Round (Vocals, Guitar, Keys), Mat Mitchell (Guitar), Josh Moreau (Bass) and Gunner Olsen (Drums). “Postulous” was next and the first person I saw removed got carried away after it ended. I saw a few more escorted out as the night went on. They weren’t playing with the phone policy.

“Fake Affront”, “The Underwhelming” and “Gray Area” led into the next humorous Keenan video where he made fun of both social media and celebrities. Besides the video segments Keenan was up front facing the crowd and joking around during the night. Who was this guy? “Theorem”, “Upgrade”, “Apocalyptical” and “The Remedy” brought the fog machines and more strobe lights than the earlier numbers.

Another video segment talked about celebrity alien clones. Some examples were Justin Bieber, The Tiger King, Nick Nolte and Gary Busey. He also made fun of himself as Wendy O’Williams and Keenan were placed in side by side pictures adding a gagline. “Personal Prometheus”,

“A Singularity” and “Indigo Children” followed by “The Humbling River” and “Bullet Train to Iowa” rounded out the main set. The next video was like you were at the drive in movie counting down the time until the band returned. A costume change had Keenan in a white suit and blond wig for the encore.

“Man Overboard” was first, followed by “Flippant” where aliens were on stage dueling with light sabers. Keenan was dancing with the aliens during “Conditions of My Parole” and then led the crowd in a vagina chant before closing with “Bedlamite” Keenan came back on the video screen and just played with the toy, Bop It, as the crowd filed out amused and pumped from a great show.

Moodie Black, a noise rap band originally from Phoenix opened the show. It was a unique performance that took me a bit to warm up to, but by the end I was moving along to the beat. Moodie Black is Kristen Martinez (vocals), Sean Lindahl (guitar), David Norbert (drums) and visual artist James Varla.

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