The last few times this reviewer set foot on Charlotte concrete, the city seemed to be cursed with deplorable staffing and backwards roadwork. While these traits have not really changed for NC Music Factory’s outdoor Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheater since I caught ICP ages ago, mother nature and city traffic finally cooperated, leaving Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel’s ethereal A Perfect Circle unscathed, not to mention the spectators dry.

Our evening opened with all-female Japanese punk trio Red Bacteria Vacuum (I still don’t get the premise, if there is one); this foreign rock act came completely by surprise and was mostly left lingering in an unfortunate atmosphere of North Carolinian culture shock–a la California’s HEALTH on Nine Inch Nails’ 2008 North American tour–but on strictly performance, this ranks up on the scale with Dead Kenny G’s, easily. We even got the nifty addition of a fourth girl showing up to display chorus subtitles on cue cards during “Enso Ya Tanoshi” (coincidentally, the only title I actually caught). There was mid-set banter, there were plays on mistranslated English jargon, and there were adorable chicks from Tokyo.

If only they had been garnished with some random hentai footage, perhaps involving tentacles. Speaking of visceral visuals…

Billy Howerdel paired with his kid piano, reminiscent of Cammie Ward in her music video debut; tucked away in the shadows of stage lighting, Keenan began crooning the words to Crucifix’s “Annihilation” and John Lennon’s “Imagine”–two covers from APC’s ’04 release, eMOTIVe. Officially speaking, the set was a delectable cover song showcase, with intermittent visits from Thirteenth Step and Mer De Noms for good measure. However, knowing this veritable supergroup has three entire albums in its repertoire, it is a bit disappointing that the show was streamlined for selections from the equivalent of an anti-war song tribute record; on an uplifting note, it also speaks volumes to hear live versions of Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks”, personal frequent playlist companion “Magdalena”,  or APC’s best-known remix, the adamantly received “Counting Bodies Like Sheep…”.

This show’s theme seemed built around covers and surreal lighting cues, echoes of bloodstained ocean tides (Joni Mitchell’s “Fiddle and the Drum”) and stunning color flashes (new release, “By and Down”). Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?”, Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”, Depeche Mode’s “People Are People”? Could it have been more diverse? Probably, but even in predictability, there was a semblance of serenity and nostalgia. There we stood, in a sea of folks tatted up in Tool imagery, to be absorbed by this more feminine side to Keenan’s available bag of tricks (for he has many, it seems). The negatives were ones to be embraced and accepted by default, because no matter how you slice it, this was still a definitive APC concert–designed to let us immerse ourselves entirely.

Photo by Amanda Lawson

It should be noted that Howerdel filled in as an impromptu front man during the majority of A Perfect Circle’s stage time, due to Keenan having a preference for being obscured by background darkness for whatever reason. I have no idea how reclusive he is in real life, but remaining virtually unseen throughout the night did put a slight damper on things, even if his lead guitarist did a ton of heavy lifting and crowd hyping for heavier fare like audience favorites “Passive”, “Weak and Powerless”, and “The Outsider”. For overall presence, James Iha was as tame as one typically expects a rhythm guitarist/keyboardist to be, though he stringently held his own on every chord and key, respectively.

What’s the general verdict? We could have gotten a better variety of set list originals (“Judith” and “3 Libras” being noticeably absent), but between once-in-a-lifetime Japanese punk rock and revisiting the act that made me a devotee of well-executed cover songs, the word of the day is “deep.” We’re talking theatrical poetry reading “deep”, acid-trippin’ music “deep.” Seriously, is it physically possible to get high on music? Sure as hell feels that way.

Photo by Amanda Lawson

It was also nice to get an open-air concert in Charlotte without precipitation and dickhead security… Well, there wasn’t any rain, at least.

Photography by Amanda Lawson.

Setlist:
Annihilation
Imagine
Weak and Powerless
The Hollow
What’s Going On
People Are People
The Outsider
Rose
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
When the Levee Breaks
The Noose
Gravity
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Magdalena
Passive
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
Fiddle and the Drum
By and Down