Puscifer (with Carina Round)
Monday, June 18 at The National
After a Patton-esque intro, the show began with a prompt on video screens surrounding the stage: VAGINA, it said, and we were all encouraged to intone the word aloud. It’s no surprise that a band who named their debut album V Is For Vagina would focus on that word throughout their live performance. However, in light of recent controversy surrounding Michigan Representative Lisa Brown–who used the word “vagina” during floor debates in the legislature over an anti-abortion bill, after which she was forbidden from speaking during the remainder of the debates–the invocation took on a particularly pointed air, especially taking place only a few blocks from the Virginia state capitol and general assembly building.
Puscifer (with Carina Round)
Monday, June 18 at The National
After a Patton-esque intro, the show began with a prompt on video screens surrounding the stage: VAGINA, it said, and we were all encouraged to intone the word aloud. It’s no surprise that a band who named their debut album V Is For Vagina would focus on that word throughout their live performance. However, in light of recent controversy surrounding Michigan Representative Lisa Brown–who used the word “vagina” during floor debates in the legislature over an anti-abortion bill, after which she was forbidden from speaking during the remainder of the debates–the invocation took on a particularly pointed air, especially taking place only a few blocks from the Virginia state capitol and general assembly building. It’s a sad time we live in, when politicians who promote their empire through phallic images of victory and dominance are afraid to hear someone speak the word for the part of the anatomy they emerged from at birth. Puscifer leader Maynard James Keenan gets that, and he and his group used provocative video imagery and verbal expressions to make it clear to all present.
Keeping with the theme established by the album cover graphics on V Is For Vagina, which are a parody of emergency landing instructions for airline passengers, the entire night had a Vagina Air theme. Echoing airline takeoff etiquette, cellphone usage was disallowed throughout the performance, which had the dual effect of creating sensory deprivation for many of the 21st century technological addicts in the audience (myself included), but also allowing for total focus on what took place onstage, with no bootlegging. Between-song video skits throughout the set featured flight crew and PA announcements of safety instructions from a drugged-out pilot, all highlighting Maynard’s history in comedy. Maynard and female vocalist Carina Round frequently tossed bags of peanuts adorned with the Vagina Air logo into the crowd. Maynard, who was dressed like a pilot or senior flight attendant and resembled Peter Sellers in his Dr. Strangelove role as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, also poured his own wine for the musicians often.
The show was short and to the point but featured excellent song selection and an awesome performance. Maynard’s voice was gorgeous throughout the evening and the feminine notes of Carina Round’s vocals pair wonderfully with his masculine sound. They sang behind framed and adorned televisions, which distorted their facial features and expressions; this presentation added an additional theme to the performance of mediation between performer and audience. The new Puscifer album, Conditions Of My Parole, features lyrical and thematic discussion of terrorism, police state, prisons, deportation, alcoholism, religious control, and special forces operations, among other topics, and these ideas were shown through the use of political cartoons broadcast on the video screens during songs, while the Puscifer Satanic babydoll icon danced.
The entire night played out as a plane crash metaphor, as the group summed up the idea in their performance that, ultimately, there’s little to no hope for humanity. The lyrics for “Man Overboard” particularly resonated, with repetition of the words “brace yourself.” Puscifer’s performance was Maynard James Keenan and co’s treatise on the state of America in 2012. Apparently, in their view, our culture is sorely lacking in perspective, as well as being directed badly by media and the runners of the world on many levels. Regardless, the show, while seemingly ending too quickly, was brilliant, and Puscifer’s message at least reached the members of the American public who were in the National that night.
[To see more of Todd’s animated gifs from the show, click HERE!]
