{"id":3633,"date":"2014-05-12T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T18:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/?p=3633"},"modified":"2014-05-12T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T18:06:08","slug":"maynard-james-keenan-celebrates-cinquanta-at-the-greek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/2014\/05\/12\/maynard-james-keenan-celebrates-cinquanta-at-the-greek\/","title":{"rendered":"Maynard James Keenan Celebrates ‘Cinquanta’ At The Greek"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Darshun<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

May 11th<\/sup>, 2014, The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA:<\/strong> Wow, just WOW. Last night was incredible. Tool\/A Perfect Circle\/Puscifer mainman Maynard James Keenan took over the Greek Theatre to celebrate his 50th birthday. The event, christened ‘Cinquanta’, will be the most memorable 50th<\/sup> birthday ever. It’s no wonder the tickets went on sale 6 months before the event\u2014to buy stock on the stock market to gain more money to fund these wonderful nights. NOTE: the tickets were expensive and I could only afford the second\u00a0night of Cinquanta. From what I heard from a good friend that attended the 1st<\/sup> night, three-fourths of TOOL played one song, which was their first single that will remain a favorite even among mainstream audiences, \u201cSober\u201d.<\/p>\n

To start off the day, I got to the Greek a bit early to meet some friends in the hope of a picnic, which fell through as it was a last-ditch effort. BUT, I must say, sitting close to the Greek Theatre while soundcheck was happening was a precursor treat. The songs I heard outside were: \u201cThe Nurse Who Loved Me (Failure)\u201d, \u201cWeak and Powerless (A Perfect Circle)\u201d, Maynard\u2019s son Devo playing a long cello solo just to perfect the tones from his instrument, which was awesome, and a Puscifer song which I\u2019m not familiar with.<\/p>\n

Gates opened around 6 PM and I raced to the merch area. Merch list: A blue woman\u2019s Failure \u201cTree of Stars\u201d tour T-shirt as well as a man\u2019s version in tannish (pictured and both $30); a commemorative Cinquanta T-shirt (pictured and priced at $30); two different Puscifer hoodies which were grey and a dark blue (priced at $50 or $60); a Puscifer Beanie ($20); a Puscifer panty; a signed ($150 and non-signed ($20) commemorative Cinquanta poster for the event; Failure signed poster ($100); and the only A Perfect Circle merch was a circular keychain ($15).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The seating area opened at 6:30 PM and a skit-typed mockumentary played on the screens around the venue at 7:30 PM. This was supposedly part of the surprise but didn\u2019t feature any musicians from the evening. There was only one familiar actor from Reno 911 that I could recall and identify. After the mini movie there was a bit from Billy D (Maynard\u2019s alter-ego from Puscifer) and his female sidekick. This was like a joke documentary for Billy D\u2019s country band.<\/p>\n

First up at 8 PM was Failure<\/strong> featuring Maynard, Billy Howerdel and Carina Round among others. The set started with piano and went right into a favorite of mine, \u201cThe Nurse Who Loved Me\u201d. The audience went crazy as Maynard sang the second\u00a0verse with his ever-so recognizable voice. This ballad was a beautiful opener for the evening, and was followed by \u201cSargeant Politeness\u201d and then \u201cDirty Blue Balloons\u201d. After the third\u00a0song, the night began to unfold and this, folks, was the coolest thing to witness: the backdrop was lifted up and whisked away by a bunch of stagehands, along with the drum rise for Kellii Scott\u2019s drum set, and then a new kit appeared with Jeff Friedl of A Perfect Circle and respective members moved off and on stage.<\/p>\n

After three Failure songs, A Perfect Circle<\/strong> began playing \u201cThe Package\u201d and the crowd went bonkers. Carina Round sang the first\u00a0verse of \u201cThe Package\u201d which might have caught some off guard but was a stunning performance nonetheless by this talented English woman. So most sets consisted of three songs per band alternating, and after APC was Puscifer. To further describe the stage, there was a third\u00a0kit to the right of the stage for Puscifer that remained stationary the whole night and alternating again the backdrop lifted up to swallow the A Perfect Circle drum kit. There was a small mobile home-type trailer that was on the left hand side of the stage and a table with Maynard\u2019s wine and lawn chairs all over the place in which various friends and musicians would sit on (A fake Paul Stanley, or was it Peter Criss or Ace Frehley?). Note: APC consisted of the newest lineup which featured Maynard, Jeff Friedl, James Iha, Billy Howerdel and Matt McJunkins.\u00a0 If I recall correctly, Carina was the only guest during their sets.<\/p>\n

It was a seamless evening with the beautifully choreographed personnel changes and so the run down is; Failure played 3 sets of 3 songs; A Perfect Circle played 3 sets of 3 songs including their most recent studio track, \u201cBy and Down\u201d from their greatest hits album; and Puscifer played the first 2 sets of 3 songs as well as the final set of 8 songs that included special guests, Green Jelly and Maynard\u2019s son Devo Keenan on cello playing some classical pieces. There was a 10-15 minute intermission after the sixth<\/span><\/span>\u00a0set. Due to the strict noise curfew because of the residential area nearby, the show ended a little before 11 PM and thus there was no Tool song. I was bummed but still glad to capture the whole night.\u00a0 The audience was left in shock due to the Greek Theatre\u2019s policy and were equally disappointed that we were all so close to seeing TOOL play, even for just one song.\u00a0 Darn you, Greek and you residential home owners nearby. \u00a0BUT, thank you Greek Theatre for the wonderful night and the wonderful memories.<\/p>\n

Failure set #1:<\/strong>
\nThe Nurse Who Loved Me (Featuring Maynard James Keenan, Carina Round, and Billy Howerdel)
\nSargeant Politeness
\nDirty Blue Balloons<\/p>\n

A Perfect Circle set #1:<\/strong>
\nThe Package
\nRose
\nThe Noose<\/p>\n

Puscifer set #1:<\/strong>
\nVagina Mine
\nPolar Bear
\nBreathe<\/p>\n

Failure set #2:<\/strong>
\nAnother Space Song
\nFrogs
\nSolaris (Featuring Maynard James Keenan and Jeff Friedl)<\/p>\n

A Perfect Circle set #2:<\/strong>
\nWeak and Powerless
\nBlue
\nOrestes<\/p>\n

Puscifer set #2:<\/strong>
\nOceans
\nMonsoons
\nHorizons<\/p>\n

Failure set #3:<\/strong>
\nStuck On You
\nWet Gravity (Featuring Jeff Friedl)
\nHeliotropic<\/p>\n

A Perfect Circle set #3:<\/strong>
\nCounting Bodies Like Sheep To The Rhythm Of The War Drums
\nBy and Down
\nThe Hollow<\/p>\n

Puscifer set #3:<\/strong>
\nThe Undertaker (Spanish Fly Mix)
\nRev 22:20
\nMan Overboard
\nTelling Ghosts
\nCuntry Boner (Featuring Danny Carey)
\nThree Little Pigs (Green Jelly featuring Danny Carey)
\nDevo Keenan on cello
\nThe Humbling River (Featuring Danny Carey and Devo Keenan)<\/p>\n

Failure links:<\/strong>
\nFailureBand.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/FailureBand<\/a><\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/Failure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Perfect Circle links:<\/strong>
\nAPerfectCircle.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/APerfectCircle<\/a><\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/APerfectCircle<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Puscifer links:<\/strong>
\nPuscifer.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/PusciferMusic<\/a><\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/Puscifer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Greek Theatre links:<\/strong>
\nGreekTheatreLA.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nfacebook.com\/GreekTheatre<\/a><\/strong>
\ntwitter.com\/GreekTheatreLA\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Darshun May 11th, 2014, The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA: Wow, just WOW. Last night was incredible. Tool\/A Perfect Circle\/Puscifer mainman Maynard James Keenan took over the Greek Theatre to celebrate his 50th birthday. The event, christened ‘Cinquanta’, will be the most memorable 50th birthday ever. It’s no wonder the tickets went on sale … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Maynard James Keenan Celebrates ‘Cinquanta’ At The Greek”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3633"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3637,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3633\/revisions\/3637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}