April 15, 2001
Cocky Perfect Circle puts out

TORONTO -- It's a confident man who steps out to lead a band while clad only in a pair of flickering electric underpants.

But then, A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan -- no stranger to minimal stagewear with his other band, Tool -- had reason to feel cocky at the Warehouse Tuesday, where the band played the first of two sold-out nights.

With A Perfect Circle around him, the singer seemed even more invulnerable than usual. Face poking from behind biblical curtains of hair, shoulders hunched like some marionette-of-prey, Keenan wasn't so much the focal point as he was the heart of a visual and aural juggernaut.

The band was that good.

APC is actually helmed by guitarist Billy Howerdel, the producer, principal songwriter and catalyst behind last year's acclaimed Mer De Noms album. The group also includes bassist/violinist Paz Lenchantin, journeyman drummer Josh Freese, and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen.

Keenan's name and unique, ululating lung power were no doubt a prime mover in the record's success, but the band's cohesion both on disc and in a live setting helps sidestep the sense that this is some sort of supergroup.

Add that to the overall uniformity of Mer De Noms, which the band performed pretty much in its entirety, and the effect in concert was almost symphonic.

Keenan kept the mood light throughout the show, coaching the audience on goofball chants ( "Each time you hear me say 'clownpenis,' you respond with 'Hey Ho, Let's Go' "), cajoling his bandmates into introducing the songs with fake titles, and telling nonsense stories about the origins of Jagermeister ("invented by German immigrants and Lakota Indians right here on this very spot").

Despite Keenan's glowing gotch, Lenchantin's fetching goth-ness, and a full-on light show, APC hammered out their mini-epics in unfettered form.

Heavy and ornate as wrought-iron, songs Magdalena, Judith, Rose, Sleeping Beauty, and Thinking Of You never strayed from the same tone. But each tune also showed attention to dynamic force and detail.

A rocked-up version of Bowie's Ashes To Ashes -- introduced by Van Leeuwen as "Hot Legs," natch -- threatened to break the mood late in the show, as did the knowledge that some of APC's tour T-shirts cost an offensive $80.

Still, the band was wise enough to know when the emotional effect was wearing off and, their songbook finished, they packed it in without an encore after getting a room full of tough looking mooks, tattooed goth-girls, seasoned rockers and spiky-headed teens to mouth along to something as equally pretty and pummeling as The Hollow.

Why mess with near-perfection?

JAM! Rating: 4 out of 5