SATURDAY

Puscifer

Pusicfer was a chance for festival revelers to get another chance at seeing Maynard James Keenan perform. In previous years, A Perfect Circle and Tool were on different days and Maynard decided to double-up again this year. In 2011 MJK had a camper on stage and performed as a “redneck” country folk for the entire show. This year, fans were fortunate to have aliens be the theme! Co-vocalist Carina Round ran onto the stage with what looked like podcast microphone arms clamped to a belt. Throughout the set, fans were greeted by aliens on stage who would dance and pretend to play different instruments. Everyone was dressed like they were a member of the Men In Black. This went well with the fact that most of the songs performed were from the band’s latest album, “Existential Reckoning.” While having seen Puscifer in years past; it has been many years. I have to admit that despite the odditiy that I didn’t particularly care for, I was still impressed! This time around they had much more of a “Smiths” vibe than I can ever remember.

Rob Zombie

My first time seeing Rob Zombie! I have been listening to his songs, whether White or Rob, for most of my life. The chance to finally see him perform I was exciting. Rob also pointed out how weird he felt it was to perform with the sun still up. His stage was incredibly elaborate! Most of the artists, including himself, took advantage of the Sonic Temple-provided screen backdrop. Lesser prepared artists used it for Imag (an industry term for cameras showing the stage and just enlarging for the audience), Rob had some ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ level videos going on behind him. Very on-brand for him! While I don’t think he sounded his best, he certainly was having a good time. His energy is off the charts and it is evident how much he loves what he is doing. As the sun began to set, one could see the energy pick up. I particularly loved hearing the two White Zombie tunes, “More Human Than Human,” and “Thunder Kiss ‘65.”

KISS

Kiss is winding down their last 50 shows ever (allegedly) and this show is one of those (alleged) last 50 tour stops. While Tool brought a few of their stage set pieces for this festival, Kiss brought it all! There was no holding them back. Flames and giant stage pieces, Gene Simmons being levitated over the stage, and Eric Singer’s drums that rose above the stage were just some of KISS’ magic. Paul Stanley pointed out how Singer is an Ohio native (Euclid, OH) which made everyone in the audience cheer even more. Kiss is a band that is going through the motions of such a well-mechanized show. But that doesn’t stop them from clearly loving what they do. The show had Kiss fans, rock fans, and metal fans, all singing and cheering along. Kiss had so much fun they even extended the show past the 11:00 pm curfew by almost 15 minutes!