James VillaWords by James Villa / Photos by James Villa
Verizon Theater – Grand Prairie, TX / Sunday, April 24, 2017
A Perfect Circle played their first show in six year at the Verizon Theater on Sunday night. The show started promptly at 8:30 with the first song played almost in it’s entirety hidden behind a sheet. James Maynard Keenan and company, played the remainder of the show hidden by smoke as backlit silhouettes using as much backlighting as possible. Keenan spoke to the crowd throughout the show ever so briefly and the crowd didn’t seem to mind one bit. He joked questioning why so many would come out to see them on a Sunday Night rather than be somewhere else, and about the new music which they have been working on. Stating if you know your math it won’t be anytime soon, but it will come.
James Iha and Jeff Friedl were certainly the most animated members for most of the evening. While bassist Matt McJunkins and guitarist Billy Howerdel remained stationary throughout. The band performed several tracks from their discography including a couple of covers first came “Imagine by John Lennon” later followed by “(What’s So Funny ’bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” by Brinsley Schwarz. For the most part the show went off without a hitch and was everything A Perfect Circle performance should be and always has been. Dark, extremely visual, and with just enough ear candy to make anyone leave the show satisfied. The sound was particularly clear and brilliant this evening.
The only thing missing was the beautiful glow of cellphones being held up high above everyone’s head screaming “look I’m here”. Kudos to a band that frowns upon the usage of a cellphone to take photos or videos throughout the entire performance. Whether the band is trying to keep a secretive persona or not, all this says to me is “Put the damn phone down and watch the show” and I for one am okay with that.
Setlist:
The Package
The Hollow
The Noose
Weak and Powerless
Rose
Imagine
By and Down
Thomas
Peace
Magdalena
Vanishing
Thinking of You
Hourglass
Counting Bodies
Stranger
Blue
Encore:
The Outsider
Gravity
Feathers
Tim Schumann
