Tool: Night 2
Awesome ... deafening ... visually interesting
And let me say, the concert hall as a venue for a full on, sans symphony rock show is actually surprisingly good ... and I had my doubts. We had seats a little off center in the first row of the balcony, and these were actually remarkably good as well -- actually I feel converted to possibly sitting here with regularity when we see symphony shows
But that aside, if you could see one band every five years or so -- and could have confidence that the show would live up to and in many ways exceed your expectations going in, this is the band to see.
Perfect and very loud. There are very few bands that play as tightly as Tool, with as much precision given the unique time signatures of the music or the perfectly blended improvisations within these constraints. The crowd energy was weird in that it seemed like people were absorbing it for most of the show, and after the encore let it all out with great energy
The first thing that really stood out to me was Danny's drumming. Sheer power, precision, technical excellence, agility -- with Tool, it is all kept within the context of songs, no gratuitous solos to show off, but man, what a drumming performance. He is often considered to be one of the finest in the industry ... I would echo that
The two guitars, lead and bass -- again, Tool is machine-like in its technical precision, so not too much doodling and showing off. Just playing parts and making sounds from their instruments that made me go WOW, you can get that kind of sound or tone out of a guitar/bass. Very cool
The audio mix was interesting, yet as I recall, similar to the 2001 show, where the vocals are super tuned down in the mix, while the drums and lead guitar are really up ... again since it was very loud, it was very much a sonic assault on the audience, in a good way. It was really an exercise in the idea that some music sounds even better loud -- though honestly at times, there were guitar notes and gong crashes that caused to audience to wince in pain or cover up
The stage layout was interesting. Two risers in the back, one for the drums, the other for Maynard, with the two guitar players up front. As always, the visuals were interesting and complemented the music very well, this time there were four segments of screens, sometimes keeping separate images, sometimes stretching one large image over them.
One of the stranger aspects to me is that although Maynard is the "iconic" person in the band, and given conventions about lead singers as being out front, over the top, and the focus ... again, this was hardly the case, he was more like a dancing shadow, hard to make out, a grey shaded figure that moved compellingly in at times frantic, at times easy. He seemed to be keeping his accessories simple, at times wearing a cowboy hat, and I think had something that looked like a nano strapped to his arm ... if I were to speculate, it almost seemed like a take on the ubiquitous and shade heavy, red fruit music player commercials ... and Maynard was particularly economical with his words (so unlike other singers that do the cheap pop, it's great to be here jazz) only saying:
Night two, deja vu
We hope to be back in the new year, keep your fingers crossed
And the I never saw that before moment of the night was at the end of the first set, where the members just stopped playing and sat on the vocal riser, resting, while the audience applauded. Then for no rhyme and reason, bounced up and played the encore songs ... then threw towels and picks in the crowd ... no bows, just shuffled right off stage. This band is so weird at times, yet that was the best I've seen so far this year
Setlist:
Stinkfist
The Pot
46 & 2
Jambi
Schism
Rosetta Stoned
Sober
Right in Two
Lateralus
--
Vicarious
Aenema
SD called the setlist, very greatest hits like. They played basically the same set the night before, substituting Right in Two from 10,000KD, and I know message board fans have been complaining that this has been the same basic set so far this tour. But, to me, anytime you see a great band play their great songs, how can you possibly complain -- I would rather have something like this than overemphasis on the new album, there was a very nice balance of old and new
And if they do return to town after the Aussie swing in early 2007 for an arena show, pretty sure we'll be there ... not too many bands put on such a great show.