Photos and Review by Jolene Rheault
CHARLOTTE, NC — The Sessanta Tour is less a concert and more a shared hallucination between some of rock’s most genre-defiant minds. On Saturday night at PNC Pavilion, that collective vision came to life for Charlotte fans lucky enough to witness it. Primus, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer didn’t just take the stage—they took turns rewriting what it means to collaborate in a live setting.
Rather than siloed performances, the three acts rotated in and out of the spotlight like an intricately choreographed fever dream. A Perfect Circle opened the evening with brooding precision—“Counting Bodies Like Sheep…” unfurling like a war march from a parallel dimension. Maynard James Keenan, ever the shapeshifter, delivered each lyric with icy resolve, setting a tone that wavered between cinematic and unsettling.
Primus answered with their trademark brand of controlled chaos. Les Claypool’s bass snarled through “Here Come the Bastards,” introducing new drummer John Hoffman, whose tight, mathy style brought a fresh charge to the trio’s already elastic sound. By the time they returned with “Little Lord Fentanyl,” now featuring Keenan’s haunting vocal textures, it was clear: this was not a Primus set. This was something else entirely.
Puscifer brought the weird in all the right ways. Opening with “Man Overboard,” Keenan and Carina Round swayed like mirrored ghosts through the band’s darker electronic layers. The rotating structure gave their set a flashbulb intensity—just enough to captivate, then dissolve back into the shadows as another act took over. That push-pull dynamic lasted for over three hours, but felt like five minutes and a full lifetime at once.
Each act had three micro-sets, 31 songs in total, threading together in seamless tension and release. Highlights included A Perfect Circle’s searing rendition of “The Outsider,” Primus laying waste to “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver,” and Puscifer’s biting “The Algorithm.” And then came “Grand Canyon.” For the finale, the stage filled with the full force of all three bands—a tidal wave of sound, movement, and synergy. It was a wild, weird, beautiful mess, in the best way possible.
Sessanta isn’t a tour for passive listeners. It’s for the fans who want to be surprised, disoriented, and completely immersed. If you’re looking for a night that plays it safe, this isn’t your show. But if you’re into witnessing boundary-pushers at the height of their powers, lean in. Sessanta 2.0 is Maynard’s birthday party, but we’re all the guests—and damn, what a gift.
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