19 April 11 - 17, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Perfectly Full Circle Maynard turns 60 and is celebrating in Irving with Primus, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle. BY SCOTT TUCKER M aynard James Keenan is turning 60 years old. To cele- brate this milestone, the mu- sician is gathering all his friends and hitting the road for a 21-date tour. On April 12, the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving will host Sessanta, one of the truly unique roadshows to come to North Texas in years. The lineup will include Keenan’s bands A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, as well as Les Claypool-led Primus. But there’s a catch. Al- though the three bands will be playing indi- vidual sets, they will be exchanging musicians throughout the night’s perfor- mances. The idea was based on a one-off show in Los Angeles the bands played to- gether a decade ago called Cinquanta, in cel- ebration of Keenan’s 50th birthday. Fans of the bands will be delighted to know that Sessanta has also announced the release of an accompanying EP titled E.P.P.P. with contributions from the bands in the form of three new songs co-written by Keenan. When putting Sessanta together for his birthday celebration, Keenan may have had something particular in mind. “I’ve worked with some amazing peo- ple,” Keenan says. “It’s really important to pick people that understand the nature of creation and can think outside the box. With Sessanta, it’s more like a circus.” If anyone knows how to put a band to- gether, it’s Maynard James Keenan. The Tool frontman has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the canon of modern rock through his various projects and three- decade-long career. The new Sessanta EP features Billy Howerdel, Josh Freese and Les Claypool among others, all contributing in co-writership with Keenan. “It’s just fun to share it when you have someone like Les Claypool,” Keenan says. “It’s nice to see them, the light in their eyes, and it kind of refreshes the way they go about making their own music. It opens up a creative flow.” The work ethic and musical output of Keenan’s inquisitive mind has become the stuff of legend. Besides actively fronting three different bands, the musician pursues everything — at least, owning and operating his own vineyard, achieving black-belt sta- tus in his study of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and opening his own martial arts school. Most recently, we learned that Keenan would be helping train former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson at Keenan’s academy in prepa- ration for Tyson’s upcoming match against Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. “Jiu-jitsu is puzzle solving,” says Keenan. “The journey from white belt to black belt is about controlling yourself, not others. It’s about self-control, self-awareness and puz- zle-solving.” Just a couple of months after completing a tour with Tool, during which the group completely packed the American Airlines Center from top to bottom, Keenan is back at it. He has the ability to switch musical gears at a moment’s notice, making him pos- sibly one of the most prolific thinkers and doers in modern rock. As technology drasti- cally changes how concertgoers experience live shows, Keenan is also a passionate advo- cate of keeping musical experiences strictly in the moment, banning the use of smart- phones from recording his band’s concerts. “The narcissism and selfish nature of the phone ... ” Keenan says. “People forget that there is someone behind them and it’s just rude. Also, you’re missing something by fuck- ing with your phone. It’s no different than a play or an opera. I don’t hate phones, there’s just some places that they are inappropriate.” Although many would argue that the convergence of music and technology over the past two decades has been a good thing, advances in technology have made music al- most free for fans, greatly hindering record sales. Like many musicians in his position, Keenan fears the homogenization of music through low-cost streaming services may be contributing to changing the way music is being made now and for years to come. “I think changes occur in time, and the pendulum swings back and forth,” Keenan says. “But it almost feels like music has no value now, so people aren’t making the effort they once were to make great music. The na- ture of everything now is coupons, a small fee and you get all the songs. But, if there’s no way to make a living making a song, I feel that people aren’t going to be able to make music like they once did.” Regardless of how people listen to music and at what cost, for the most part, Keenan’s thoughts remain central to his craft and ar- tistic inspiration. “There are so many nuances and subtle de- tails in art,” Keenan says. “Art is very subjec- tive, and I’d argue Andy Kaufman was pure art; he was just completely immersed. Just as art is subjective, people are subjective too.” For Keenan, experimenting with emerg- ing art forms has always the dominant focus of his musical career. Starting off in the hey- day of hair metal bands of the Sunset Strip, Keenan hung out and performed at the infa- mous alternative clubs Raji’s and Scream in Los Angeles, along with other heavy alterna- tive contemporaries such as Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More. The clubs were well known for hosting industrial and goth bands and catered to the latest in experimental music, helping set the stage for these new forms of music to even- tually topple the cartoonish glam of the Sun- set Strip bands in the early 1990s on MTV and commercial radio. “That’s where you would play, a handful of names in LA, if you were not a Sunset Strip band,” Keenan says. “For the most part, the punk rockers took it over. It wasn’t hair metal, it was going back to the garage sound, and I think you just wound up there. Back then, everything was new, and you didn’t know what to expect. The fun part was watching those bands succeed and do things differently.” For Keenan, watching his friends and fel- low musicians succeed may be at the root of what Sessanta is all about, and what he’s been about since starting out all those years ago. For one night in Dallas, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus will come together, share the stage and celebrate what may be considered an apex of musicians enjoying each other’s decades-long careers. “I want to make sure people show up on time for the show because there is not an opener,” Keenan says. “Be in your seat, ready to go.” Sessanta may be more than a birthday tour and a new EP. It may be considered a well-earned complex pleasure for these mu- sicians and their tireless leader. “Art finds a way because it needs to,” Keenan says. “In the future it may not happen in the form of music, but it will find a way if there’s friction. Take a violin, take the bend- ing of the wood creating the body, the tight hairs of the bow. Drag it across the strings. This creates more tension. Art comes out as the release, everything else has a lot of ten- sion. The friction, that’s life, and art is the pointing out or celebrating that friction.” ▼ Music Andrew Sherman As he turns 60, Tool’s frontman is celebrating with Sessanta, a 21-date tour that brings A Perfect Circle to Irving. Hand built not bougHt. Franklins TaTToo and supply TWo loCaTions: 469-904-2665 • 4910 Columbia ave, dallas, TX 75214 903-710-2028 • 17581 old Jacksonville hwy, flint tx 75762 proFessional TaTToo supply For pros only Call for your appointment or design commissions today! www.dallasobserver.com/signup go to WEEKLY EMAIL D SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL LIST for feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more!
