The cold, late-autumn night warmed up for a few hours Friday in Detroit’s historic Masonic Temple when alternative-goth rockers, A Perfect Circle, treated fans to a performance of their current show that has been traveling the country on and off since the late spring and the release of their latest LP, Eat the Elephant. The band has toured extensively since reconvening in 2010 following a 6-year hiatus, but they had not released an album of new material in 15 years (or an album at all in 14), so their desire to celebrate and perform their new songs is understandable after only previously cycling through tracks from 2000-2004, for the most part. Friday’s was the band’s third performance in Michigan within the last year, having also played in Detroit and Grand Rapids about a year ago, months ahead of the album’s release. Whether it was a concert-goer’s first APC show or one of many for a veteran fan, the band delighted and thoroughly entertained the Masonic Temple crowd in a focused and efficient fashion.
The night began with short opening sets from Night Club
and Badflower, filling in for Tricky, who has been touring with A Perfect
Circle over the past several weeks but was not present in Detroit. With
concertgoers still trying to get into the venue as late as 90 minutes after
doors opened, the opening acts certainly performed to a less-than-full house.
The lights went down again at exactly 9:05pm for the headliners, and prior to
the band taking the stage, one member at a time, to vocal and enthusiastic
receptions, an audio recording warned those in attendance that photos and
recordings of any kind would not be allowed and could result in ejection from
the venue, recalling Pink Floyd’s quasi-satirical disclaimers during The Wall tour. A Perfect Circle’s vocalist/lyricist,
Maynard James Keenan, infamously asked security to remove several rows of
ticket-holders from a show last year for refusing to stop filming the concert
after requests and warnings, and signs all around the halls of The Masonic
Temple also warned camera and phone use would not be allowed during the show.
In spite of this, it was also notable that APC did not hire Yondr, a phone
security service used recently by Jack White, Chris Rock, and others, to lock
phones up in patron’s pockets during the show. The stern warnings and light
threats seemed to get the point across to most, leaving the venue particularly and
almost eerily dark throughout the 100-minute concert.
Each member of the group held their own throughout the
night, including Keenan, guitarist and co-founder, Billy Howerdel, and newer
members like bassist Matt McJunkins and drummer Jeff Friedl, who especially stood
out as having grown in proficiency and execution compared to his early years
with the group. While guitarist/keyboardist James Iha is away working with
Smashing Pumpkins again, his position was covered by Greg Edwards of Autolux and
Failure, who performed just as well but did not stand out as much as the
full-time members of the group on stage. The set-up has been consistent over
the course of the past year, with three band members standing on elevated,
lighted platforms that also doubled as video screens during some songs, and two
band members performing in front of the platforms, along with the lighting and
projections that have become associated with the group over their 18-year
history. The song selection, on the other hand, has changed since the band’s
shows a year ago, and they now feature twice as many songs from their latest
album (8 in total), and they’ve rotated two non-singles out in favor of songs
they have since released to promote the record. Many fan-favorites were also
included, such as “Rose” and “Thomas” from 2000’s Mer de Noms, and the return of the hit “Judith”, also from that
album. While APC chose to avoid playing that particular song for a number of
years during recent tours, they continue to feature that album’s other big hit,
“3 Libras” at almost every show, albeit in remixed form, making it sometimes
unrecognizable to those in the audience. Also included were “Weak and Powerless”,
and “The Noose”, from 2003’s Thirteenth
Step, and a run through the always loud and violent, “Counting Bodies Like
Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums”, originally written to protest The George
W. Bush administration, and U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, but continuing
to sound sadly fitting in a different way. Fewer songs from that album, 2004’s Emotive, were included than have been in
recent years, but considering that album contains mainly cover songs, focusing
instead on original material, especially new, original material, only makes
sense.
Keenan spoke to the audience a few times during the show,
including a few jokes about seeing snow and remembering why he moved away from
Michigan in his youth, but he also seemed genuinely impressed by the crowd’s
enthusiastic responses over the course of the concert, mentioning more than
once phrases such as “This is Michigan!” and “You guys are bananas!” to the
delight of the fans in attendance. Despite his friendly interactions with the
audience, Keenan stayed mostly in the dark throughout the concert, somewhat
reminiscent to seeing Tool, one of his other projects, during their famous
2001-2002 tour, where the singer even added black clothing and body paint to further
disappear into his dark corner of the stage while other band members were more
traditionally lit. By time the show reached it’s end, with a somewhat out-of-place
run through the lengthy, mostly-quiet deep cut, “The Package”, and one last
new-album track, “Delicious”, Keenan relaxed the photo and film rule and
invited the crowd to feel free to take out their phones for pictures during the
last two minutes of the show, but by the time most were able to do so, Keenan
was already walking off the stage, leaving most to shoot and film images of the
other four band members finishing the final song. Overall, A Perfect Circle
delivered a well-executed, well-rehearsed, and very professional show that
avoided most rock concert clichés and kept true to the band’s style and tone
throughout. While a few more songs could have better-covered the group’s
catalog, the songs that were featured were delivered nearly-perfectly.
A Perfect Circle Set List (11/9/18):
Eat the Elephant
Disillusioned
The Hollow
Weak and Powerless
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Rose
Thomas
(what’s so funny ‘bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding (Lowe)
Vanishing
The Noose
3 Libras (all main courses mix)
The Contrarian
TalkTalk
Hourglass
The Doomed
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
Judith
The Package
Delicious
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