Greg Puciato‘s upcoming resurrection of sorts of The Black Queen this spring has seen some new and old faces return to the fold. Both Dahnny Lohner (ex-Nine Inch Nails/A Perfect Circle) and Chris Pennie (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan) have signed on for The Black Queen‘s ongoing tour, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of the synthwave outfit’s debut album “Fever Daydream“.
While Puciato‘s ties to Pennie are obvious given their shared history in The Dillinger Escape Plan, Puciato‘s longstanding relationship with Lohner has been less documented.
Speaking recently with Loudwire Nights, Puciato elaborated on how they became friends:
“The first song with Dillinger that [I] recorded, the first original song was ‘Baby’s First Coffin,’ which was originally not written for ‘Miss Machine‘. It was written as a commissioned track for the ‘Underworld‘ soundtrack and Danny Lohner was the director of that soundtrack…that was the first time we had sort of an interaction.
And then I was asked to do some Nine Inch Nails [stuff] at their, at the time, final shows in Los Angeles. And one of the songs we did was ‘Mr. Self-Destruct‘ from ‘The Downward Spiral‘ and Danny came onstage, too, and guested on guitar. We kind of became cooler then. But then really, one of my best friends is Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle, one of my dearest, dearest friends. And he and Danny are extremely close.
And because of hanging out with Billy a lot, I’ve by proxy hung out with Danny a lot. And Danny and I have a very similar energy personality-wise and just get each other. When we were taking about doing this tour a few months ago, I don’t know why it jumped out.
We were talking about getting another member that could kind of play a lot of roles, to play synth, play guitar, play bass, musical direct if need be. I think it was Billy Howerdel who was like, ‘Dude, just talk to Danny Lohner.'”
As for reuniting with Pennie, Puciato explained:
“Danny‘s pretty responsible for this, honestly, because Danny was like, ‘Dude, we’ve got to get a fucking drummer.’ I’m like, I don’t want to get a drummer. I don’t like Depeche Mode when they have a drummer, I liked them before they had a drummer. We’re an electronic band. I’m not putting a fucking drummer onstage.
And he’s like, ‘No dude, fuck that. I was in Nine Inch Nails. You’ve got to listen to me’ … So I called Chris and we were talking about nothing, I wasn’t even thinking about this. We were talking about the Knicks [and] he was like, ‘Man, I can’t wait to see you in New York,’ and then I was just like, ‘Dude, I’m going to ask you something that you’re going to say no. I don’t know why I’m asking you this.’
I was like, ‘Do you ever want to come on tour again?’ And he’s like, ‘Are you serious? And do what?’ And I was like, oh dude, play drums? And he’s like, ‘Dude, yes.'”
Puciato also spoke of his friendship with Pennie and the pivotal nature it unwittingly played in Puciato‘s career:
“We ended up meeting Gil Sharone [after Pennie left The Dillinger Escape Plan,] who kind of saved the day and sat in. It’s the weirdest fucking thing now. It’s like, you just keep going and shit starts getting weird. Because if Chris Pennie never quit Dillinger, which was so devastating at the time, I never meet Gil Sharone. Gil Sharone is who introduced me to Tyler Bates, who played with [Marilyn] Manson.
Tyler Bates is who asked me to do the Jerry Cantrell thing. So, Chris Pennie never quits the band, I never know Jerry Cantrell, that never even happens. And now he’s back in a different context. It’s just crazy … I always tell people, don’t think too much. Don’t decide ahead of time what something’s going to be to the degree that you get like fixed to it. Because the things that happen, they happen.
You’ve got to just start doing something. Like, okay, I’m going to do this Black Queen tour, even though I don’t really want to do anniversary tour shit, I’m going to do it.”
With Holy Water and Reba Meyers:
05/14 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
With Doves & Georgi:
05/16 Los Angeles, CA – Catch One
With There Is No Us & More Ephemoral:
05/17 Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit
With Ghost Cop & Trace Amount:
05/21 Boston, MA – Sonia (at Middle East)
05/22 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
05/23 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
With Clubdrugs & Trace Amount:
05/24 Detroit, MI – The Magic Bag
05/27 Montreal, QC – Théâtre Fairmount
05/28 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
05/29 Cleveland, OH – Mercury Music Lounge
05/30 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
06/03 West Palm Beach, FL – Respectable Street (with Violet Silhouette) (no Clubdrugs)
06/04 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Hell)
With Black Magnet & Reba Meyers:
06/05 Austin, TX – Elysium
06/06 Dallas, TX – AM/FM
