Maynard James Keenan's Epic 60th Birthday Party Comes to Detroit

Sessanta

Sessanta, a 60^th birthday celebration for Maynard James Keenan, made its way to Pine Knob Music Theatre Thursday, May 2 and it was one kick-ass party! The three-way celebration featuring A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus, is a unique performance featuring three acts of each band rotating short sets with band members occasionally crossing over to fill in on some of the songs.

The show opened with A Perfect Circle, the band formed by Maynard and guitarist Billy Howerdel in 1999. Puscifer’s Carina Round pushed a cart out on stage with cupcakes and party hats and Maynard blew out a candle on one of them. His actual birthday was two weeks before but the entire tour is his birthday celebration. Puscifer member Carina returned and joined Maynard on “The Contrarian”

Primus played second and really got the crowd pumped with their unique funk-metal sound. Les Claypool is a sight to see stomping around in circles slapping his bass like nobody else can. Songs like Jerry Was a Race Car Driver and Tommy the Cat got big crowd reactions.

Of the three bands, A Perfect Circle seemed to get the loudest reactions with most of the crowd singing along. It was a sensory smorgasbord with the constant rotation of musicians and musical style and the bands complimented each other well.

There was an upper platform with stairs leading up from the main stage with sectional couches for band members to lounge on when they weren’t performing. Occasionally there would be random silliness like a couple of the guys from APC playing ping pong at one end of the stage while Puscifer performed and during another song Maynard pulled a table out with Rock em Sock em Robots and battled with Carina while they sang. There was a stairlift stage left to the upper drum platform which both Maynard and Les Claypool used for comic relief. There was even a funny clip during one of the breaks of Maynard made up to look aged in a hospital gown telling lame jokes.

The show finished with the 3-song Sessanta E.P.P.P. which consists of a song composed by each band and the final song of the night, Puscifer’s Grand Canyon featuring all three bands on stage at once performing. It was at the start of this song that Maynard lifted the no-phones ban and invited everyone to record and take pictures.

It was a lot of fun and the crowd was really into it, standing for the entirety of the nearly three-hour show. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime shows that people are sure to talk about years from now.

All photos by Dan Boshart