For the past month, Greg Puciato of Killer Be Killed, Black Queen, Dillinger Escape Plan, and now Better Lovers, has been touring North America for his first solo tour after finishing a stint with Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell. With the release of Mirrorcell in 2022, Puciato had 2 full-lengths under his belt to fill his set but still managed to throw in a few surprises.
Opening the show was solo Industrial act, Trace Amount-- a pseudonym for producer/vocalist, Brandon Gallagher. Despite people still filing in, Trace Amount still delivered a lively set to warm up the crowd. Following Trace Amount was Justin Pearson's (The Locust) latest project, Deaf Club. The band blasted into the room before the curtain covering the stage was done opening. After all these years, Pearson is as wild as ever. He never took a second to slow down between constantly jumping to the barricade to rile up the audience to even running to the back of the dance floor to shout from the sound booth. Deaf Club played a tight set which even included a cover of Nirvana's "Tourette's."
Rounding out Greg Puciato's support for the tour was power violence group, Escuela Grind. Katerina Economou's impeccable growl never wavered as they bounced around the stage to drummer, Jesse Fuente's blast beats. The band ended up running through an entire new EP they plan to record later this year as well ended the set with a cover of Hatebreed's, "Filth."
Greg took to the stage for his last show of the tour, opening with the combo of "In This Hell You Find Yourself" and "Reality Spiral." Throughout the night, he continued to play through tracks from his newest album, Mirrorcell, and tracks like "Deep Set Eyes" and "Roach Hiss" from Child Soldier -- the latter of which had Converge's Ben Koller on drums. Throughout the set, he would jump up to the crowd to sing along. When he came out for his encore, he proclaimed that they'd be doing a bunch of extra songs and some more special guests would be joining him. The first of the surprises were a couple of Black Queen songs, including "Secret Scream" and "The End Where We Start" with special guest, Billy Howerdel of A Perfect Circle. Next up were Gil Sharone and Tyler Bates to join in on their song "Now You've Really Done It" from the Dark Knights: Death Metal soundtrack. Greg ended the night with Dillinger Escape Plan's 'One of Us is the Killer." He'd been teasing the song throughout the tour, but tonight was the first night he and the band performed the entire song. Greg threw his face into the crowd for support on the vocals, spending much of the track at the barricade. The song ended and so does Greg's first solo tour. He delivered a strong performance and continues to be one of the greatest frontmen in the business. Not for one moment was he not giving his all.
I wasn't the only one to catch Greg on this tour. Be sure to check out Kevin's blog too!
