Sessanta Opens Pine Knob Music Theatre Season For Maynard’s 60th

Fans packed into Pine Knob Music Theatre on May 2 for the season’s first show, Sessanta, which featured A Perfect Circle, Primus, and Puscifer cohabitating on the same stage, switching between each band’s catalog and collaborating on eachother’s songs.

 

The name Sessanta, which is also the title of the collaborative EP, was coined in celebration of Maynard James Keenan’s 60th birthday. And what better to celebrate one of the world’s best musicians than a one-time-only tour featuring two of Maynard’s bands (A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) and joined by Primus, with members from each band working together to perform each other’s songs in a unique showcase.

 

For those who didn’t witness it first hand, each band had 3 acts of their own songs, with members of the other bands filling in or adding to the performance. The blueprint of that looked like this:

• A Perfect Circle | Act 1 | 3 Songs
• Primus | Act 1 | 4 Songs
• Puscifer | Act 1 | 3 Songs
• Primus | Act 2 | 3 Songs
• Puscifer | Act 2 | 4 Songs
• A Perfect Circle | Act 2 | 4 Songs
• Puscifer | Act 3 | 2 Songs
• A Perfect Circle | Act 3 | 2 Songs
• Primus | Act 3| 1 Song
• Sessanta E.P.P.P. | 3 Songs
• All 3 Bands performing Puscifer’s “Grand Canyon” (Fans were allowed to film with their phones, press was able to photograph)

 

Songs became even more interesting when you’d see things like Carina Round stepping in on select songs, Maynard performing with Les Claypool on “Tommy The Cat,” Tim Alexander playing on “The Hollow” from APC, or all three drummers performing during Primus’ “Southbound Pachyderm.”

 

At the end of the night, Maynard invited the crowd to finally take out their phones and the press was able to enter the photo pit to capture the last song, Puscifer’s “Grand Canyon” with all the players on the stage.

 

 

See the full setlist here:

 

 

The ‘Sessanta E.P. P. P.’ came out on March 29, which featured 3 songs, one from each of the bands, and were all co-written by Maynard James Keenan. As far as the tour, Keenan says “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.”

 

While this one-time tour is absolutely unique, the idea stemmed from a one-time-only performance in Los Angeles in 2014 called Cinquanta, which was Maynard’s 50th. This tour was also the first time A Perfect Circle has performed a string of dates live since 2018.

 

While the last show wraps up May 4 in New York, be sure to recap the show by listening to the setlist above, and for those who haven’t done deep dives into each of these bands’ catalogs, we suggest you do so. This is only a fraction of the output from these legendary acts, so do yourself a service by expanding your knowledge. We know we will do the same!