Puscifer and Dave Hill at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco

With a new album, Normal Isn’t, fresh out of the hopper, Puscifer has hit the road to perform the material live. Hitting San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre on a Monday, the band’s eclectic fanbase pillaged the merch table before taking their seats in the historic theater which is much more accustomed to musicals than mega rock and roll shows.

Plastered everywhere around the theater were signs stating the band’s strict no camera policy, threating immediate ejection for the slightest infraction. Those already familiar with the band’s policy took a passing note and without complaint honored the edict through the opener, Dave Hill. His 30 minute set melded carefully crafted localized jokes with a healthy dose of rock and roll, making a compelling case for more band’s bringing on comedians as opening acts.

As the crowd took their seats for Puscifer’s 9 pm set, a audio recording reminded the audience of the photo policy, eliciting more than a few cheers from the room. And when the band finally took the stage to “Thrust,” nearly entirety of the floor took to their feet.

A unique combination of one of the most iconic and powerful voices in rock music (Maynard James Keenan) with Carina Round, Puscifer mixes a healthy dose of ironic social commentary with stage theatrics into a riveting production that was perfectly suited for the historic theater. Starting the set on high risers at the back of the stage, Keenan and Round descended the stairs during “Self Evident” at which point Keenen egged on the front rows … as if any encouragement was required.

What became abundantly clear early in the set was that the tour was going to deliver a healthy dose of new material … in fact the whole album, as the evening would prove out. No grumbling from the San Francisco crowd, though, as the performance came across as the band intended … delivering on the album’s themes, right down to the costumes and video interludes. Pure perfection.

A Nerf gun duel during fan favorite “The Remedy” served as an opportunity for Dave Hill to return to the stage and pass out pistols to Maynard and Carina. The duel ironically escalated into a Nerf gun arms race in which Carina handily prevailed as the weapon sized increased over the course of the song. From there, a 10 minute intermission gave the crew an opportunity to clean up the shrapnel before the band returned to the stage with Mat Mitchell (guitar) and Josh Moreau (bass) armed with keytars for “The Humbling River.”

Those jones for a photo/video finally received permission to break out their phones for the set closer, “A Public Stoning,” wrapping up what was no doubt a live music highlight of the year for most.

Setlist: