Tool singer’s new band a work in progress

Maynard James Keenan gestures toward the empty stage and chuckles to himself, wrinkling up his nose as if he were locked in a Porta John.

"If you smell a little bit of poo, that's me panicking," he says with a grin.

Sitting in one of the private alcoves at The Pearl at the Palms, Keenan's glancing at the canvas -- now blank -- upon which he'll premiere his beat-centric, music-performance-comedy ensemble Puscifer, which is hard to put into words.

"I'd love to point to a specific sound bite, but I don't have one for you," says Keenan, best known as the frontman for progressive rockers Tool and A Perfect Circle. "It's been such a can't-put-your-finger-on-it type of project."

The "experimental/industrial/lounge" collective, as the group refers to itself on its MySpace page, is a more tongue-in-cheek, dance-friendly outfit than Keenan's other groups, featuring a rotating cast of collaborators, including Primus drummer Tim Alexander, King Crimson's Trey Gunn, actress Milla Jovovich and many others.

"It kind of started in the '90s, in a small theater setting with a bunch of fantastic comedians just having a little home to work things out," explains Keenan, a soft-spoken man in a collared silver shirt buttoned up to the neck. "The glue that held it all together was comedian/writer Laura Milligan. One of the running themes was that she had a musician boyfriend who never shows up, although he promises to, and that was me. Eventually, I would show up and do different characters."

From this setting, Puscifer was born. The group issued its debut, "V is For Vagina," a little more than a year ago, and now they'll be taking the stage for the first time with a two-night stint at The Pearl on Feb. 13 and 14.

Keenan chose Vegas mainly out of convenience.

"It's close to L.A., San Francisco," he says. "A lot of people who are going to be involved in it can drive here, the hotel gives us discounts, so we can actually be in one spot. A place like this has all the lights, all the accommodations, everything you need to come in here and experiment with a show -- and that's what this thing is, it's a work in progress."

As such, there's no clear parameters for the show at this point, other than that it will be music based, improvisational and will probably have a theatrical dimension to it.

"I think it's as open as it needs to be," Keenan says. "I mean, hell, you could look back at this in two years and realize that it's a cooking show."

Until then, who knows what the ingredients will be.

"This could be a complete and utter disaster," Keenan says. "This could be genius one night, and then the next night you go, 'Well, that didn't quite work. At all.' But that's the beauty with this thing. If it wasn't that precious, if it wasn't volatile, it wouldn't be worth it."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.