Puscifer @ The Louisville Palace - Louisville, KY
April 21st, 2026: Puscifer, Dave Hill @ The Louisville Palace - Louisville, KY
Puscifer | Photo Courtesy of: Emily May
Puscifer, the Los Angeles rock band led by Maynard James Keenan (Tool/A Perfect Circle) and which features long-time collaborators Carina Round and Mat Mitchell, brought their Normal Isn’t Tour to The Louisville Palace on April 21st, with comedian/actor/musician Dave Hill opening the show. The project is considered by Keenan be his creative subconscious, with each tour allowing the fans to dive into the world he creates with each album. This tour celebrates the band’s latest album Normal Isn’t, which was released on Februaury 6th. The album sees Keenan appear as his goth alter ego Bellendia Black and Round as Fannie Grey, with both performing in their costumes and make-up and playing out a tension between the two on stage, with each of them mid-set shooting at each other with toy guns. There were a few moments like this throughout the set, with Keenan and Round engaging in humorous antics, with the crowd loving every moment. The very start of the set saw a video play with Keenan and Round, acting as their alter-egos, telling the crowd to keep their phones put away and that taking photos or video was strictly prohibited. In a bit of cheeky humor, with which the fans were good sports about, they asked the crowd three times to repeat “We understand” in response to the rule. And from what I could tell, no one violated the rule throughout the evening. It’s a rare occurance, but a refreshing one, to attend a concert where no one has their phones out and are fully engaged with the performance!
The stage was set up with two platforms at the back, one on each side, and a set of stairs running down the middle, allowing Round and Kennan to alternate between standing on the platforms and moving about the front of the stage. The lighting was really nice, with the different colors and tones almost matching the tension of the performance. Sometimes the lighting was deeper and had harsher tones and sometimes it was a bit brighter or softer. Throughout the set, the screen behind the stage was lit up with different colorful representations of the Puscifer logo, as well as a pre-recorded video skit which played into the theme and alter-egos of the tour. It also alerted the crowd when it was time for a brief intermission. The extensive 18-song set was heavy on songs from the new album, as well as some older favorites such as “Bullet Train to Iowa”, “The Arsonist”, “Conditions Of My Parole”, “Momma Sed”. The band ended the night with “A Public Stoning”, which saw Dave Hill return to the stage to join in. Puscifer always puts on a great show with an incredible and creative stage production, giving their fans an experience they won’t soon forget! And what an experience it is, getting to take a dive into Keenan’s creative subconscious for a bit!
Dave Hill
Puscifer @ The Louisville Palace- Louisville
LA rock group Puscifer brought their Existential Reckoning Tour to Louisville, KY on 11/11 and drew a packed venue of fans! Led by singer Maynard James Keenan, who also fronts Tool and A Perfect Circle, he has a wide variety of fans who love all three of his bands and were ready to rock out this evening! Having recently released their 4th studio album Exisatential Reckoning, the band performed the album in its entirety this evening. Opening the show was the LA darkwave electronica band Night Club. Consisting of Mark Brooks on keys/synth and Emily Kavanaugh on vocals, they definitely got the crowd warmed up. With dark, moody lighting of blues, reds, and bursts of white, Kavanaugh paced the stage and engaged the crowd, her powerful voice cutting through the electronic beats! With plenty of singles, Eps, and albums in their catalog, their most recent being 2020’s Die Die Lullaby, they sang a nice selection of songs and were a great start to the evening.
Next up was Puscifer. Starting out their set, before the band came out onto the stage, was Keenan’s alter-ego agent Dick Merkin on the screen at the back of the stage humorously relaying the band’s no phone policy, saying anyone who violated the policy would be ground up by two meat processors into a fine paste and added as an ingredient in SPAM. The stage production for their set was amazing, with the band presenting the audience with a multimedia experience that had the band investigating alien abductions by men-in-black agents! The first song, “Bread and Circus”, saw the stage dimly lit with only a couple of the members present, drummer Gunnar Olsen, bassist Josh Moreau, and multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell on keys, easing everyone into the evening. A few minutes into the song, we saw Maynard’s agent Dick Merkin, along with Carina Round (vocals), enter the stage. The second song “Postulous” saw a slew of special agents come out to take away a Billy D imposter, who breached the camera policy, after being pointed out by Agent Merkin.
Although their set was heavy on songs from Existential Reckoning, they delighted their fans with songs from their other albums, as well. About halfway through their set, the video screen showed a second message from Agent Merkin, telling the crowd that Pusciforce had identified an alien-owned and operated hidden mobile cloning facility whose purpose seemed to be to duplicate or replace red-carpet celebrities whom they felt were mediocre or had bad fashion tastes. Later, after a brief intermission, Keenan came out atop the scaffolding at the center of the stage as his Billy D persona as costumed aliens joined the band on stage, with plenty of hilarious alien antics ensuing. With an 18-song set, ending the set with “Bedlamite”, the band gave the crowd an incredible evening of music and visual delights. The thought and production that went into this evening’s performance were impressive and engaged the crowd from start to finish!
PUSCIFER
NIGHT CLUB
