Leave the phone in your pocket. A Perfect Circle run a no-phone policy at their shows; Billy Howerdel has called watching a concert through a screen rude, and at one Reading, Pennsylvania show more than 60 people were thrown out for filming and taking pictures. When Maynard James Keenan does relent, it's an event: in October 2018 in Utah, he let the crowd record the closing song, "Delicious," the first time the band had played it live, and called it a present from grandpa. Keenan and Howerdel started the band in 1999, alongside Keenan's work in Tool, and Columbus has seen it at full scale before: they were among the headliners announced for Rock on the Range 2011 at what was then Crew Stadium.
The band's slow pace has never meant they've gone away. "Starless," released May 27, 2026 with Josh Freese on drums, spent two weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in October, their first time there since "Weak and Powerless" in 2003, and also gave them a first top 10 on Rock & Alternative Airplay. "To Whom It May Concern" came next, along with a North American tour running April 13 to June 13, 2027, with Puscifer on the opening Canadian shows and The Cult as main support for most of the rest. Their last full album, Eat the Elephant, came out in 2018. Howerdel's word on new material so far is that there's more to come.