You Don't Just 'See' Tool...

Before Tool’s show at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 24, an aficionado said to me: “You don’t just see Tool”. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but if the crowd waiting to get was anything to go by, this was certainly going to be an experience. By the time it started, the crowd was certainly more than ready, having already amused themselves with a Mexican wave the MCG security staff would have wet their pants over.

Kicking off with Stinkfist followed by 46 and 2 was brilliant. They were quite possibly the greatest songs to start with: everyone knew them and the frenzy that accompanied them was no less than explosive.

Maynard James Keenan, possibly one of the most incognito of front men, approached the mic with a simple statement: “I have one word for you. It’s holyfuckingshit.” Needless to say, this was met with a roar from the crowd, and the band began their first track from the new album, Jambi. Prior to this, the band had been playing in front of rather unimpressive video screens. To the delight of the crowd, a massive black curtain was removed unveiling a ceiling high, stage-wide picture of a kaleidoscope of eyes (a picture from the liner notes of 2006's 10,000 Days) – it was stunning and very hypnotic. This changed half-way through the set to another image of many heads, also from the 10,000 Days album. Both were very impressive.

Schism followed, and from this point on, as weird as this might sound, I kind of spaced out. I don’t mean that I fell asleep, or forgot the show, but there was something about Danny Carey’s gut-wrenching drums and Justin Chancellor’s pounding bass, the eyes, the lights and the swaying of the crowd, I just found myself in a totally transcendental state. Having spoken to several Tool fans since, this is apparently a very common experience. Personally, I found it really, really weird!

My one complaint of the whole evening was that Maynard’s voice was very hard to hear from the general admission standing area, which was really disappointing. Musical highlights, however, included the use of a tube attached to Adam Jones' guitar to allow him to speak through it (it’s called a squawk- or vox-box, and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, Dave Grohl uses one on the Foo Fighter’s ‘Generator’, if that helps). There was also a gong, which was super-impressive, until the Killers used one the next day at the Big Day Out.

The greatest point of the evening, following a sit-down mid-set by the band when the crowd took out all of their lighters and mobile phones and created a great deal of ambience, was a double up of Wings Parts 1 and 2 off 10,000 Days, which included a LASER SHOW!! It was the best thing I think I’ve ever seen, and if I wasn’t spaced out already, this just made it even worse! They were so hypnotic and crazy – bright green beams making the whole place look like it was some futuristic security cage, a stage laser display that looked like Adam was about to be beamed up by an alien spacecraft. The whole thing was so surreal, and the crowd lapped it up.
Vicarious, off 10,000 Days, and Aenima finished off the set, which was great. The whole thing finished way too soon, and without a sound to be heard but the ringing in my ears, I somehow floated out into the real world. My friend was right. You don’t just see Tool. You are engulfed by them.

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