If you like Tool, go buy their new album Lateralus.If you like Tool, psychedelic nightmare video screens and contortednaked acrobats, go see a Tool concert.
On Friday of last week, Tool performed an outstanding show in a packed MCI Center—and they did the full works. The lights dimmed around 9 o’clock but the stage remained quiet for about 10 minutes. A low rumble filled the air, and on each of the two huge video screens behind the stage a circle of eyeballs appeared. The audience waited, almost completely silent. In the shadows of the stage, the four band members made their way to their positions. The lights came back up a little, and the band launched into “The Grudge.”
The video screens behind the band maintained a steady flow of visual effects synchronized with the music. Some of the videos were computer animation, and others were bits and pieces of past MTV videos. By enhancing the songs with visual elements, Tool was able to create myriad atmospheres during the concert. In the performance of “Forty Six & 2” the music and the video came together at the beginning to create a mysterious and bleak landscape of sight and sound that slowly built up into a finale with the video screens producing a psychedelic swirling effect resembling a lava lamp in fast motion.
Then there were the acrobatic dancers. In the middle of “Schism” they walked, or crawled, on stage. The two of them were completely shaved, painted silver and appeared to be naked. They walked on all fours in a disfigured manner, keeping their hips the highest point on their body and swinging their heads forwards and backwards like pendulums. They came out for the rest of the song and then made their way off stage—but that was far from being the last of them. A little later in the show, the band took a break and left Adam Jones on stage alone playing guitar. He didn’t really play the guitar, he just would hit a few chords once in a while and let feedback ring across the crowd. Then, to the surprise of most people in the audience, the silver dancers reappeared, hoisting themselves up on pulleys in front of the video screens. Once they had gotten about 25 feet above the stage, they drew up into a ball, clipped their feet in and dangled upside down. Then they grasped each other’s hands, pulled themselves together and pushed apart, sending themselves twirling around in circles. The two of them proceeded to contort and meander their bodies in an array of positions that seemed humanely impossible. After about 10 minutes of this, Danny Carey came back on stage and began building into a frantic drumbeat. Justin Chancellor joined him on bass and Adam Jones proceeded to belt out scratchy feedback sounds from his guitar. Tool proceeded to jam like this for a while on a variation of “Triad.” After a few more minutes they stopped and the dancers came down, bringing out extensive applause from the crowd.
The band then played through a few more songs off Lateralus before Maynard James Keenan spoke to the crowd for the first time that night. He mumbled something about emotions and catalysts and then started “Aenima” to the wild delight of the crowd. Afterwards he thanked everyone for coming, wished them all a safe drive home and hoped they were enjoying themselves and would continue to do so in the weeks ahead. For the closing piece, the band selected “Lateralus”—a fitting end to a flawless show.
At a Tool concert, seeing the band itself perform is nothing to get excited about. The members don’t really do much, and they show little emotion. The show as a whole, however, is an enveloping experience that reaches out to the senses—an evening well spent.
