📷: Maurice Nunez Riverside, CA 2/24/23
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Greg Puciato
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA
23 May 2023
If there is a single word that can be used to describe Greg Puciato more than any other, that word would be “range”. He’s been a core part of no less than four wildly-different bands over the past twenty years, perhaps most famously as vocalist for The Dillinger Escape Plan, and since 2020 he’s released two albums under his own name. The first, Child Soldier: Creator of God, was very much the work of an auteur, with Puciato playing every instrument save for percussion on the album; he followed that in 2022 with Mirrorcell, and now the efforts have culminated in his first tour of all solo material. That go-round recently stopped at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA for a night that built on the singer’s reputation for intensity, even as he’s created albums undeniably distinct from what he’s made as part of other projects.
Between both of Puciato’s albums, there’s a wide variety in style - Mirrorcell plays its metal influence close to the chest, especially in its guitar parts; Creator of God walks a wider range of paths, and Puciato and his band play liberally from each record throughout the night, with a lean towards the latter. Another facet of Puciato’s range is that of his actual vocal performance, the credential that lets him travel easily between stylistic choices, be that the cavernous metal salvos of set-opener ‘Reality Spiral’, the close-up restrained menace in something like ‘Evacuation’, or the serrated intensity he summons in ‘Fire for Water’. His impressive adaptability puts him in a pantheon with names such as Mike Patton, whose music in Faith No More inspired Puciato as a young man, and who collaborated with Dillinger just before Puciato joined the band as a vocalist in the early 2000s.
The entire band onstage is as ferocious as their songs can be, each imbuing their instrumental part with accompanying physicality, and Puciato is no exception, whipping around with his microphone cable trailing in the air and at times lifting its stand up with his left arm whilst signing to the mic in his right hand. Though his solo efforts thus far don’t skirt into so-called “mathcore” territory, there’s still a wealth of instrumental complexity here, like the particularly impressive drum performance of ‘Fire for Water’ or the deep, churning bass that carries ‘Deep Set’ - which in keeping with its lyrical refrain finds Puciato looking far across the room with characteristic, intense focus behind his eyes. The band showcase some modifications to ‘Evacuation’ that better suit their instrumental lineup, but the distinctly synth-led recorded version is an interesting crossbreed with Puciato’s Black Queen project, striking a figure reminiscent of HEALTH or Carpenter Brut, the latter of whom he collaborated with in 2022. He quips of ‘Lowered’ that the song is hard to sing alone, as he’s joined on the Mirrorcell version by Reba Meyers of Code Orange.
The final run of songs in the band’s set are all drawn from Creator of God, concluding the same way the album does in ‘September City’. The song morphs significantly throughout, beginning with an airy, almost gentle delivery from Puciato that is cut through by a singular guitar which foreshadows the final explosive movement of the night in the song’s second half. It’s the perfect microcosm of what makes Puciato’s material so compelling: the fury would be notable in and of itself, but by expanding beyond those confines into a wealth of sonic variation, he makes something truly cosmic in scope. The result: a nascent discography under his own name that is fast expanding into a beacon of creativity in the realm of metal-indebted song.
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Jerry Cantrell and Greg Puciato sharing vocal duties, The Eastern, Atlanta, GA, March 2023. Photos by me!
The show, for lack of better words, was fantastic. The set opened with "Atone" before going right into "Psychotic Break" and then "Them Bones". The hits kept coming one after another - there was no letting up from Jerry and company. Overall, the set was a good mix of Jerry's solo work and his AIC material - perfect for a fan like me.
Major kudos has to go to Greg Puciato. I've followed his career for over 15 years and seeing how much he's grown as a vocalist is really spectacular. He had a powerhouse voice in his Dillinger Escape Plan days, but now that power is much more mature and refined. When he sang "Man in the Box", it felt like Layne was singing it.
The encore songs were "Brighten", "It Ain't Like That", and of course, "Rooster". Jerry also sang a short piece in dedication to a friend who recently passed away to formally close the set out. The audience was definitely left wanting more, but in a good way. If it were up to me, that set could have gone on for another couple of hours.
Regardless of length, Jerry and everyone else in the band were at peak performance, and I'm really happy to have seen Jerry perform solo instead of just in a strict Alice in Chains context. Here's to hoping that there will be more Atlanta shows to come from him - I'll definitely be ready.
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📷: @enedina67 IG Tacoma, WA 4/1/23
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im kinda in love sorry. no i dont plan on becoming normal about it soon
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