‘Sessanta’ reboots with V2.0 tour for Maynard James Keenan’s 61st birthday as Primus, Puscifer & A Perfect Circle visit Acrisure Arena

Sessanta: Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle //
Acrisure Arena – Thousand Palms, CA
April 24th, 2025 //

As someone whose music career spans almost 40 years now, Maynard James Keenan has become accustomed to being in the public eye.

The frontman for three successful rock bands — Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer — has sold millions of albums, toured the world and won Grammys, but with that has also come some controversy at times, whether it’s backlash online from Justin Bieber’s wife or a false claim of sexual assault via social media he had to debunk … once he turned his phone on.

The latest came less than two months ago after the inaugural “Tool in the Sand” event in the Dominican Republic to mark the band’s first-ever destination festival. Tool had promised “two unique sets” over the course of three days as Friday’s and Saturday’s headliner, but many fans left disappointed after booing the prog-rock titans for repeating several songs during their second performance.

The news certainly made the rounds all across the internet a day or two later, and a class-action lawsuit was filed against Keenan and his bandmates subsequently. While fans might feel like they have a right to be upset about four songs they had to hear twice and will try to argue they would not have gone had they known that, they don’t have much of a legal case to stand on from our vantage point.

But with Tool wrapping up their first-ever South American tour at the end of March, there was only three weeks’ worth of time for Keenan to focus on his other projects for the 2.0 version of the “Sessanta” tour that features Primus, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle performing every 3-4 songs in those increments for nearly three hours.

Hitting a few secondary U.S. markets on this run, Sessanta’s first stop for its 2025 reboot just happened to be within driving distance for us. Standing 120 miles east of Los Angeles off Interstate 10 in Thousand Palms, the 11,000-person Acrisure Arena opened in 2022 as the home of the Coachella Valley Firebirds that compete in the American Hockey League (AHL) as the NHL affiliate for the Seattle Kraken.

Like any modern establishment though, the multi-purpose indoor space proved to be a suitable setting for celebrating Keenan’s 61st birthday. This wasn’t our first time experiencing Sessanta after watching Keenan ring in the big 6-0 at the Hollywood Bowl a year prior when the other members of Tool made a surprise appearance to perform “Ænema” with Les Claypool of Primus joining them to provide backing vocals (read our show review here). I had also caught one of the two “Cinquanta” gigs in 2014 — with Failure on the bill instead of Primus — for MJK’s 50th at LA’s Greek Theatre and have always enjoyed the rotating format that back then had the drum risers on wheels to facilitate changeovers.

One of the big upgrades in stage production from Cinquanta to Sessanta has been having each band’s equipment — including three drum sets — set up at all times on the platform above and toward the back of the stage, and it’s made the transitions from one act to the other even more seamless than before. A Perfect Circle, much like we witnessed at the Bowl, went first and earned loud cheers from the crowd as they opened with “The Package” off 2003’s Thirteenth Step. Yet, it was hearing them play “Blue” for the first time since 2018 that served as an early highlight and had us replaying the chorus (“Call an optimist, she’s turning blue / Such a lovely color for you / Call an optimist, she’s turning blue / While I just sit and stare at you”) in our head the next day.

When it was time for Primus to take the reins, our eyes were focused squarely on new drummer John Hoffman. The alt-funk metal trio had held open auditions for the throne earlier this year following Tim Alexander’s sudden exit in October, ultimately going with the Louisiana native, and it quickly became clear as they powered through “Here Come the Bastards”, “Groundhog’s Day” and “Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread” for Act 1 that Claypool (lead vocals, bass, double bass) and Larry LaLonde (guitars, backing vocals) unquestionably made an excellent choice amidst some stiff competition i.e. Rory Dolan, Thomas Pridgen, Nikki Glaspie, Thomas Lang and more. Around the midway point, we were gifted the live debut of the trio’s new single “Little Lord Fentanyl” featuring Keenan while Carina Round of Puscifer lent her voice to the mix, too. Clocking in under four minutes long, it’s a slinky little ditty satirizing one of America’s biggest killers that showcases Hoffman’s chops and reminds us why Claypool remains in a league of his own. Primus, after all, have been at it for close to four decades if you can believe it and continue to regularly tour — they are back in LA this August as headliners with support from Ty Segall — but with The Desaturating Seven dropping in 2017 as their ninth and most recent LP, maybe new blood is what’s needed to get the creativity flowing again in the studio.

Speaking of Puscifer, the three-piece consisting of Keenan (vocals), Round (vocals, guitar, percussion, keyboards) and Mat Mitchell (guitar, bass, programming, keyboards, synthesizers, production) offered their own live debut in the form of “The Algorithm” that they released last year for the soundtrack to the “American Psycho” comic book, and seeing all three bands switch things up for Sessanta V2.0 justified our trek out to the desert. Keenan might not be changing up the setlist every night, but you can be sure he isn’t mailing it in. Even if his range isn’t what it used to be when he was in his 20’s with Tool, his tone still leaves an immediate impression. Throw in a bunch of the best rock ‘n’ roll musicians in the game to back him up, and you have a recipe for a very unique and fun concert experience.

What makes Sessanta unlike anything else are the collaborations that occur, and A Perfect Circle took advantage of the extra resources available by inviting Hoffman and Puscifer timekeeper Gunnar Olsen to assist on “The Doomed” while Primus employed a similar strategy for their 1995 single “Southbound Pachyderm” with Olsen as well as APC guitarist Billy Howerdel and drummer Josh Freese getting in on the action after Keenan and Mitchell sat in on “Pablo’s Hippos” from the collaborative Sessanta E.P.P.P.

It’s always difficult when you are only given one song — in this case, the last few minutes when all three bands join forces onstage for Puscifer’s “Grand Canyon” — to photograph and have to miss some of the music in order to do so. My younger self who grew up listening to and admiring Keenan’s work probably would have been jealous of an opportunity to capture a living legend in their element. I suppose after all these years covering live music a lot of the shock value has worn off, but when it’s one of your childhood heroes standing up there, that excitement inside never really goes away.

Setlist:
Act 1: A Perfect Circle
The Package (A Perfect Circle song)
Disillusioned (A Perfect Circle song)
Blue (A Perfect Circle song) (first time since 2018)

Primus
Here Come the Bastards (Primus song)
Groundhog’s Day (Primus song)
Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread (Primus song)

Puscifer
Man Overboard (Puscifer song)
Tiny Monsters (Puscifer song)
Indigo Children (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)

Act 2: Primus
Little Lord Fentanyl (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan) (and Carina Round; live debut)
Welcome to This World (Primus song) (>)
My Name Is Mud (Primus song)
Jerry Was a Race Car Driver (Primus song)

Puscifer
Flippant (Puscifer song)
No Angel (Puscifer song)
Bullet Train to Iowa (Puscifer song)
The Algorithm (Puscifer song) (live debut)

A Perfect Circle
The Contrarian (A Perfect Circle song) (with Carina Round)
The Doomed (A Perfect Circle song) (with John Hoffman) (and Gunnar Olsen; Hoffman on main drums, Freese and Olsen joined at the end; first time since 2018)
Weak and Powerless (A Perfect Circle song)
The Outsider (A Perfect Circle song)

Act 3: Puscifer
The Humbling River (Puscifer song) (Versatile mix)
Polar Bear (Puscifer song) (first time since 2017)
The Remedy (Puscifer song)

A Perfect Circle
The Noose (A Perfect Circle song)
Kindred (A Perfect Circle song)
Judith (A Perfect Circle song)

Primus
Pablo’s Hippos (Primus song) (with Maynard James Keenan) (and Mat Mitchell)
Southbound Pachyderm (Primus song) (with Billy Howerdel) (and Josh Freese and Gunnar Olsen)

Primus, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer
Grand Canyon (Puscifer song)