A Perfect Circle w/ Red Bacteria Vacuum
Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre
July 19, 2011
The Deal: Back on the road, A Perfect Circle runs through nearly 20 songs, from its first album to a whole bunch of its covers.
The Good: The night started with a 30-minute set by the Japanese all-girl punk trio Red Bacteria Vacuum. While the trio came out to a techno groove and proceeded to pose at each drum break, their music was on the opposite end of the spectrum, offering heavy punk riffs and shouted vocals.
The bass player said the band loved being in Charlotte… and then repeated the word “barbecue” numerous times before a crowd member shouted, “egg roll!” The band whipped its hair, jumped around and appeared to love every moment they were performing — isn’t that how it should be?
A Perfect Circle hit the stage a little after 9 p.m. on its way to a roughly 90 minute set. The band started off with two covers — Crucifix’s “Annihilation” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” — before hitting a couple songs of its own with “Weak and Powerless” and “The Hollow.”
The band took up the full stage, but rarely did band members stray from their quadrants on the military-themed stage full of crates, artillery shells and camo netting. Former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha got a loud round of applause when he first walked on stage and held his ground on guitar and some keyboard work throughout the night.
Singer Maynard James Keenan was a man of few words between songs, only offering a simple “Thank You” after “Gravity.” The band creates a more atmospheric and mood-setting brand of rock vs. the heavy grinding of Keenan’s other band, Tool. Keenan’s longest, and only, comments came after “Counting Bodies Like Sheep” — “This is usually where we walk off stage and you freak and scream and applaud until we come back out on stage, pretending like we weren’t going to until you asked. We’re gonna save us all some time by staying here, playing a couple more songs and then leaving… Perfect. … And, we’re back.” The band then played it’s faux encore of “Fiddle and the Drum” and its new song, “By and Down.”
The Bad: I’m not sure which is more annoying and distracting — having the guy in front of you hold up his cell phone to try and video the entire concert, or having a security guy walk by every three minutes to tell him to put his cell phone down. The concert had some of the tightest security I’ve seen, hunting down every picture taker in the audience. Good luck getting any photos of Kennan, however, as he stood in the back corner without a single light on him for the duration of the show.
The Verdict: The crowd loved every minute of the band’s 19-song set, from cover to brand new song. I would have liked a bit more originality instead of spot-on versions of the album songs, but something is better than nothing for this reunited band.
A Perfect Circle setlist
Annihilation (Crucifix cover)
Imagine (John Lennon cover)
Weak and Powerless
The Hollow
What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye cover)
People Are People (Depeche Mode cover)
The Outsider
Rose
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding (Brinsley Schwarz cover)
When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin cover)
The Noose
3 Libras (aMotive All Main Courses Remix)
Gravity
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (Black Flag cover)
Magdalena
Passive
Counting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums
Fiddle and the Drum (Joni Mitchell cover)
By and Down
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2011.
So now Marxist Maynard has removed all doubt by wearing a hammer and sickle (paint roller) t-shirt. What’s his old motto — “think for yourself, question reality.” Not much thinking for oneself under a Marxist regime. Maynard is living proof that it is possible to be highly intelligent and ignorant at the same time. Great show, though. Except for some of the covers.
Couple of errors in the above review. Maynard spoke twice. After Imagine he told the story of their transportation issues from Charlotte to Atlanta. Also, Magdalena was not played, Orestes was.
The only real disappointment was the remix version of 3 Libras…would have much more preferred the original.
Don’t be an idiot – a silly shirt doesn’t make one a marxist. Anyone who pays attention to Maynard knows he has a knack for wearing funny/ironic t-shirts. For example, in his wine docuemntary movie he wears several – the one that comes to mind is a big green gun with “Green Piece” under it.
Hillarious.
Magdalena was definitely played in Charlotte… I sang along to every word. 😉
Maynard didn’t speak of transportation issues from charlotte to Atlanta . He was in charlotte. He had yet to go to Atlanta. The above review is correct. Review is for the charlotte show…..not Atlanta.
Carl — How about a funny/ironic swastika? Would that be cool? The Soviet Union killed way more people than Nazi Germany. I have a feeling Maynard never would wear a funny/ironic swastika t-shirt.
And Magdalena definitely *was* played in Charlotte.
This is like arguing whether it’s better to be run over by a bus or an 18-wheeler, but nevertheless your statement about the Nazis vs. Soviets is false. Before you lump me in with the Marxists in an ad hominen attack, check the numbers in any history book that doesn’t have an affiliation with Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire.
The Nazis killed over 23 million Russians alone on the Eastern Front in their quest for Lebensraum — that number doesn’t include the Eastern and Western European deaths caused by the war Nazi Germay began, or the 6 million victims of the Holocaust. Civilian deaths under the entire 70-year Soviet regime are generally put at 25 million.
This is a macabre exercise, and your point actually stands about the “ironic shirts,” but resorting to revisionist history only weakens your argument.