REVIEW: Puscifer @ the Schnitzer (Portland, OR – 3/14/12)
Fourth time seeing Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer. Always a treat! I opted out of the hassle of doing the photo pass on this 2nd leg, as I wanted to catch Carina Round’s set and not miss the intro video or any of the Puscifer set like I had to back at the 1st leg kick-off in Seattle in Nov 2011. Thus… ALL PHOTOS posted on this review are from the official Puscifer photographer and/or Meats Meier (see FB photo album).
I did the VIP soundcheck & wine tasting again (I’m a sucker for that)… Soundcheck performance was again stripped down acoustic on both songs – “The Chain” [Fleetwood Mac] and the personal favorite “The Humbling River” (with Carina Round on banjo).
For the wine, this time we tried the Arizona Stronghold’s Mandala (2010) & Mangus (2010) and the Caduceus Cellars’ Nagual de la Naga (2010). The Mandala was nice, had a very sweet and somewhat tart nose, but definitely a dry/balanced finish. It’s still young, but was an interesting viognier white wine blend. The next two were reds, and I liked them more. The Mangus was very drinkable. It was a “super Tuscan” primarily sangiovese blend – sweet, fruity, a little buttery in the mouth-feel. My favorite of the night was the Nagual de la Naga. It would have been perfect with a rich meal… this cabernet savignon, merlot, and sangiovese blend was only bottled a week before the tour started; so it was definitely a young wine. Despite its age, it was full bodied and beautiful to drink now.
Carina Round opened the show. She’s a great rocker singer-songwriter who also backs Maynard on vocals during the Puscifer set… she seemed more comfortable than the last tour go around. Her band was made up of a majority of the Puscifer live band. She had a lot of energy, and a high kick near the end of the set gave those of us in the front rows a special treat. She left the stage, and shortly thereafter the video intro started with Billy D (played by Maynard), Hildy, Cherry Piles, Peter Merkin, and other odd characters.
The show started out the same as Seattle… with Maynard wheeling out a small airstream camper. He set up some tables and chairs and talked about sustainability and what they’re trying to do with Puscifer (listen to the Fall 2011 monologue from NC).
The show overall was very similar to last year’s leg, which is fine with me… it’s a great set of songs, a fantastic light show, and a paradox of high technology with a stripped down feel. The song selection was also quite similar, except for the middle of the set we got “Potions” and “Mama Sed” instead of “Polar Bear” and “Indigo Children”…
Setlist: about 90 minutes
- Maynard Monologue while setting up camper/stage
- The Green Valley
- Tiny Monsters
- Vagina Mine
- Dozo
- Toma
- The Rapture (Fear is a Mind Killa Mix)
- The Weaver
- Rev 22:20 [Carina Round on lead vocals]
- Potions
- Momma Sed
- Oceans
- Monsoons
- Horizons
- Conditions of My Parole
- Man Overboard
- Telling Ghosts
- The Undertaker
- Tumbleweed
No Encore
This is a brilliant tour for a brilliant album. The western feel also fits extremely well with the newer mellower songs… tumbleweeds blowing by, fake campfire, and a dazzling electrical storm…
Don’t have Conditions of My Parole yet? I think you should go buy it if you haven’t yet. It’s at the top of my pile for 2011 releases (by far).
The Appropriate Linkage:
- Puscifer’s Site
- Caduceus Cellars (Maynard’s wines)
- Puscifer’s Social Media Links (see below)
- Carina Round’s Site
- Carina Round’s Facebook / MySpace / Twitter
- My Other Related Reviews~
- Puscifer @ Roseland #1 w/ wine tasting (Portland – Nov 2009)
- Puscifer @ Roseland #2 (Portland – Nov 2009)
- A Perfect Circle (Portland – June 2011)
- Puscifer @ Paramount w/ wine tasting (Seattle – Nov 2011)
- PCPA/Arlene Schnitzer’s Site / Facebook / Twitter
Check out more tour dates below… the dates are winding down; so if you missed it, you’ll have to try next time!
Next shows for me… Seun Kuti @ WOW Hall (3/18) and Skerik’s Bandalabra @ Cozmic (3/20).
~Dan – np: John Zorn – IAO: Music in Sacred Light
Puscifer Winter Tour 2012
February
23 Austin, TX – Long Center for the Performing Arts
25 Baton Rouge, LA – River Center Theatre
26 Memphis, TN – Orpheum Theatre
28 Nashville, TN – Andrew Jackson Hall
29 Louisville, KY – Brown Theatre
March
1 Pittsburgh, PA – Byham Theatre
3 Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
4 Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
6 Kansas City, KS – Kansas City Music Hall
7 Omaha, NE – Omaha Civic Auditorium
10 Edmonton, AB – North Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
11 Calgary, AB – Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
13 Vancouver, BC – The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts
14 Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
16 San Francisco, CA Palace of Fine Arts
17 Riverside, CA Fox Performing Arts Center
18 Escondido, CA – California Center for the Arts
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pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news 
AMAZING SHOW-saw em on the 28th in N-ville,Strange enough I saw TOOL just barely a month before in Atlanta.STILL-i’m hoping TOOL puts this ‘10,000 days/winter tour’ out as a concert dvd-at least to tide us over until the new record eventually comes out.Makes perfect sense to me as it gives MJK time with Puscifer,a lil downtime on his Vineyard.Plus theyve said they/Tool arent gonna be doing anymore 2 yr long tours for a record anymore.I’d love to hear another APC record of originals to be honest even as much as i love Puscifer.’Tiny Monster’s sound alot like apc to me personally.I’d love to hear MJK,Mike Patton,Lohner & Reznor were working together-even throw in Ken Andrews & that would be something to hear.
Yeah, I’m bummed I missed the recent Tool dates. I was in Vegas 2 days after their show. D’oh!!
Maybe we were at a different show. Great band, great show, but the vocals were NOT loud enough after the first two songs. From there on out, the vocals were muted. Bass was very high as well. All in all its a must to see this show, I just wish the sound was better. Same thing applied to the Mesa, AZ show.
I was right up front and didn’t get that impression. Where were you?
Row Q, maybe 75 feet from the stage. We all were saying that the sound was great, minus the vocals. Its too bad especially when you consider that those two have some amazing voices.
Right, both have such great vocal chops. Sucks that where you were *should* have had some good vocal sound. Maybe I lucked out… I did have a stage-positioned speaker pointed right at me…
I was Mezzanine D… the sounds was incredible (read reviews to find where the best sound in theater was) … I hear the orchestra levels can be acoustic hell. Amazing performance.
Could you post Carina’s setlist?
I only caught her last three songs.,.. not familiar enough with her song names to know what they were… sorry. :(
Is Carina had a new set list for this year?
not sure… I didn’t catch her whole set this year or last fall either…
there was no caduceus wine on sale at the bar this time :(
yeah, perhaps the Schnitzer doesn’t work well with indie distributors? Was there any on during the 2011 APC show at Schnitzer (I was there, didn’t hit the bar at all).
This a very interesting music review about the Puscifer at the Schnitzer. You really highlighted the group and made them introduced well in your content. You did a good job on this.