Band’s debut an all-around success

  Virgin Records A Perfect Circle, a new hard rock band,
showcased their talent in San Diego and Los Angeles earlier this
month.

By Chris Moriates
Daily Bruin Contributor

There are many different paths to the forefront of the music
industry. Some musicians work local club circuits for years before
becoming “overnight stars” and some hit it big while
still attending high school, but Billy Howerdel took a path that is
truly unique. While his new hard rock band, A Perfect Circle, has
erupted onto the music scene at an astonishing pace,
Howerdel’s success was a long time in the making.

As the lights exploded and the see-through black curtain dropped
to fully reveal the band during the climax of the show’s
opening song, “Magdalena,” the majority of the crowd
filling up the arena at UCSD was unaware where this powerful band
actually originated. Sure, most of them knew lead singer Maynard
James Keenan and his original band Tool, but what they didn’t
know was that the catalyst of the band was the bald, mellow
guitarist in the corner, Billy Howerdel.

Howerdel fought his way into the music industry any way he
could, working as a guitar technician for many bands, like Guns
n’ Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, and Tool. All the while he
maintained his vision of being the one who remains on stage when
the curtain rises. He wrote and recorded the songs found on A
Perfect Circle’s successful debut, “Mer de Noms,”
(translated as “Sea of Names”) minus the vocals, which
later came courtesy of his friend, Keenan.

  Virgin Records Although Maynard James
Keenan from Tool is one of the members of A Perfect Circle
(pictured), they are completely separate projects. “Hearing
Billy’s music, I just had to sit down and clear my head and
listen to where it takes me,” explained Keenan when asked to
talk about his approach to writing the songs on “Mer de
Noms.” Keenan said that he abandoned all the books and just
got down to the bare bones of his feelings on this album, instead
of employing his usual less emotional, more intuitive
“writing from a left-brain function.”

While the album is full of hard-rocking, guitar-driven music,
the live show incorporates the music with lighting and stage
props.

The atmosphere of the concert was defined by the small touches,
such as the mid-show placement of candles around the stage by
Keenan and the bursts of bright lights contrasting with the dark
setting.

The music of A Perfect Circle has attracted a great deal of
attention. Beginning as what many have described as “Maynard
from Tool’s side project,” the music of A Perfect
Circle has gained its own status, becoming regarded by
“Guitar One” magazine as “the shape of rock to
come.”

The first single from “Mer de Noms,” the hard-rock
“Judith,” with its soaring guitars and vocals, has
invaded the airwaves of many popular radio stations, including Los
Angeles’ own KROQ.

Perhaps this eruption of popularity has come too fast for a band
whose members are used to being more in the shadows than being
mainstream rock-‘n’-roll heroes.

Keenan all too wittingly admitted this fact at the show, stating
ever-so-bluntly, yet with a touch of mocking sarcasm, to the crowd,
“That’s it, we don’t have that many songs. You
guys made us popular before we had time to write any
more.”