At 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, Keenan brings Sessanta, an adventurous tour featuring Puscifer, Primus and A Perfect Circle, to Blossom. It’s an extension of last year’s limited number of shows that the groups played to mark Keenan’s 60th birthday.
“I’m just trying to catch up with everything,” says Keenan via phone from his Verde Valley home. “I have two weeks to do everything I need to do in the café and the winery. I’m just trying to get it done. It’s daunting. You have this beast that needs to be fed and run, so it’s a daily stress, but it’s worth it knowing what people experience when they walk away from the places. It’s definitely worth the effort, but it takes a lot of energy.”
One solid set that clocks in around three hours in total, the Sessanta show features multiple mini sets that morph into the next band’s set, with the groups shifting members as the night goes on (so you might get Keenan singing with singer-bassist Les Claypool when Primus plays, and Claypool playing bass with APC).
When conceiving of the tour last year, Keenan says he thought about the guys in Primus, an alt-rock/jam band he admires, and figured they would mesh well with his Puscifer and A Perfect Circle bandmates.
“[Over the years,] I’ve watched how [singer-bassist] Les [Claypool] and [guitarist] [Larry] ‘Lar’ [LaLonde] navigate other bands,” he says. “They can seamlessly work with other people on stage. Les also has his jam band project. The personalities are really what it comes down to. It seemed like it was worth a try. And as we predicted, it was great.”
The tour announcement video shows everyone standing around Keenan’s grave and Keenan crawling up from the dirt to proclaim he’s not dead yet.
“It was fun until I was supposed to be under the soil, and they forgot to put a battery in the camera,” he says dryly when asked about filming the clip. “We had to start over, and I had to re-bury myself. That’s incredibly terrifying.”
To mark the tour, the groups also released an EP featuring new tunes from all bands. “Kindred,” A Perfect Circle’s contribution, features somber vocals and pummeling drums as it references a death in the family. Puscifer’s “No Angel” benefits from ricocheting guitar riffs and constipated vocals, and Primus’s “Pablo’s Hippos” comes off as particularly proggy with its thick bass riffs and noodling guitars.
“The whole EP came about when I was messing around with different riffs and ideas; they originated on my laptop during morning coffee,” says Keenan.
Started on a whim some 20 years ago, Puscifer has become a serious side project for Keenan even if it doesn’t draw the same size of an audience as A Perfect Circle and Tool, both of which are arena rock acts.
“It has evolutionary potential,” Keenan says of Puscifer. “Just the way we approach everything is very focused play for lack of a better explanation. The way Mat [Mitchell] works and I work and [singer] Carina [Round] works dovetails. We’re currently working on a new album. Watching it come together is really inspirational as I can see each piece as it’s been added or subtracted. We’re not sitting in a studio together, so it’s fun to get an update and hear what someone has done, and you can react.”
Keenan says he organically decides which project to devote his attention to.
“It kind of presents itself,” he says. “It just depends on where each band is at with the writing and touring. Did we just play that place last year? Should be go back this year? It’s basic logistics.”
The last Puscifer record came out in 2020, so it’s due for a new release. Keenan says the forthcoming album will center on a theme, but he’s not willing to reveal what it is just yet. The tour will undoubtedly exploit the album’s concept.
“We did the trailer tour, and in 2015, we had the Luchadores ring in the middle of the stage. They were our opening band,” he says. “They did a match and then were on stage with us during the show while we were doing songs.”
Keenan has left a lasting legacy with all of his bands, especially Tool, which has yet to be inducted into the Rock Hall even though the group is eligible. Keenan says he doesn’t lose sleep wondering if the band will ever get the nod, but he also says he’s not so anti-establishment that he wouldn’t show up for the band’s induction.
“To be honored like that would be nice,” he says. “I was at Ozzy [Osbourne’s induction], so I guess I should show up for my own, though I’m from Ohio, so I do have the love/hate thing going on.”
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This article appears in Apr 10-23, 2025.