Burger with Relish

The Capitol Theatre, in downtown Salt Lake City, is home of Ballet West, Broadway Across America and Utah Opera.

That is why it is so strange to see Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan and his side project Puscifer on the marquee and performing tonight.

Puscifer will perform in a theatrical performance that is sure to be beyond NC-17. (When buying tickets, there is a disclaimer: "Recommended for mature audiences.")

The band presumably will perform selections from its comedic avant-garde-pop albums "V Is For Vagina," "V Is for Viagra: The Remixes" and "C Is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference HERE)."

The word "presumably" is used because Keenan, in an interview, refused to discuss what the performance will consist of.

"To explain it away does nothing," Keenan said. "We're not politicians. We're not looking for votes."

The only explanation of what to expect from the performance is that it is "somewhere between Mr. Show, David Bowie, Monty Python, Porter Wagoner and Buck Owens," Keenan said.

When Puscifer held its first show earlier this year at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, The Las Vegas Review-Journal dubbed the theater show "a performance art spectacle equal parts comedy cabaret show, guerrilla theater, lysergic animation sequences, Krautrock-inspired metallic jams and leering lunacy of various stripes."

Tool has been upending expectations since it began, Keenan said. "It took seven years for people to get it."

Tool, Keenan's band, is a Los Angeles-based progressive-metal outfit that has sold nearly 10 million albums in the United States, and it headlined EnergySolutions Arena this past summer.
But Puscifer is not Tool, Keenan said in one of his more illuminating moments during the interview.

"The shows have [gone] well," said Jonny Polonsky, guitarist for Puscifer. "It baffled everyone."
Polonsky explained that his friend Keenan has a method to his madness. "Who wants to know what you're doing all the time?" Polonsky said. "People have expectations because of Tool and [Keenan's other side-project] A Perfect Circle, and people don't expect him to [do this]."

Like Keenan, Polonsky wouldn't discuss what to expect, saying only: "It's a really fun experience. People who have seen it haven't found words to describe it. It's a lot of information to take in."

After saying that every show is different and nothing is really planned out, Keenan didn't mind when asked if the show would turn out to be a trainwreck. "Zsa Zsa Gabor and Lindsay Lohan are trainwrecks, and people can't stop looking at them," Keenan said.

A trainwreck can be good, he added, "if it's art."

Puscifer performs with Maynard James Keenan. The show is recommended for mature audiences.
When » Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Where » Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City
Tickets » $46 to $125 at ArtTix (801-355-ARTS); $125 ticket includes wine-tasting