Puscifer with Dave Hill – The Sylvee – Madison, WI – April 28th, 2026

Puscifer with Dave Hill – The Sylvee – Madison, WI – April 28^th, 2026

Review and photos Kate Klaus

Puscifer’s “Normal Isn’t” Tour rolled through Madison on April 28^th, bringing their spectacle of a full-on theatrical performance built around their newly released album of the same name.  Led by Maynard James Keenan, Puscifer blends alternative rock, electronic, and experimental sounds with humor, storytelling, and sometimes poignant heavy theatrical elements.

To open up the night, comedian and artist Dave Hill curated the weird, theatrical tone that set the evening.  Riding onto stage clumsily on a bike and wearing a bright patch-adorned jumpsuit, he immediately launched into a tirade of silliness that included a strobe dance light and nunchucks.  He’s perfectly awkward, deliberately absurd, and he mixes comedy with some shredding style guitar solos, including singing about things like the first fight he got into.  He got the audience engaged, chanting his name and then putting them in stiches with his “public transportation pickup lines”.   His performance worked perfectly because it mirrored and set up for Puscifer’s aesthetic, being strange, theatrical, self-aware, and a little uncomfortable in a fun way. He didn’t just warm up the crowd, but he primed them for the quirky, eccentric, and immersive experience that the rest of the show then delivered.

Pusifer then took the stage to dark moody lighting, with Mayard and Carina Round perched atop a scaffolding at the back of the stage.  Their costumes, for characters Belendia Black  (Maynard) and Fanny Grey (Carina), helped to tell the story on stage, with Belendia Black coming off sharp and commanding, dressed in a darker suit with a kind of sleek, almost authoritarian edge. The styling, hair, makeup, and his posture, feels precise and deliberate, adding to that controlled, slightly intimidating presence. Fanny Gray was the perfect contrast with a softer but also more chaotic look in its own way with exaggerated sleeves on her dress and haunting makeup.  Together, the costumes aren’t just for the visual, they set the mood on stage, and watching them interact visually is just as interesting as the phenomenal harmony in their vocals. The band rounded out that moody, intense vibe, with Mat Mitchel as the backbone of the sound with guitar and synth tones.  For this tour, Josh Moreau is filling out the low end on bass, and grounding the band in the deep tones.  Gunnar Olson was thunderous on drums, with tight precision and styling that matched the eccentricity of the music.

The show felt like stepping into a fully built, slightly unhinged world that runs on equal parts precision and absurdity. The set consisted primarily of songs from their newly released album “Normal Isn’t”, opening with “Thrust” and “Self-Evident”.  Puscifer’s lyrics are thoughtful and an often a pointed commentary through verbiage on current society, with songs like “The Algorithm” speaking to “social mediots” and attention addition and doom scroll junkies.  This is mixed in with lighter moments like a nerf gun battle during “The Remedy” off of their 2015 album “Money Shot”.

On top of the theatrics and the captivating lyrics and showmanship, the music didn’t take a back seat, with the highlight of the show being the haunting harmony of Maynard and Carina’s voices.  Their tones pair beautifully and add such a great depth to the already intricate and unique musicality.  At their core, Puscifer is about not taking things too seriously while still being very intentional. The show was polished but weird, funny but dark, and just self-aware enough that the chaos felt deliberate, and the music told that story perfectly.  A Pusicfer show is unlike any concert out there, and definitely not one to miss to fully experience their music and everything in encompasses.