A Review of the Late 1995 Not-a-Tour
Date: December 15
Posted-Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 13:36:21 -0500 From: rclouse@deltanet.com (Ray Clouse) Well, here it is, a blow-by-blow account of last night's TOOL concert in Ventura (15 Dec 95): Arrived a little late at 8:25 pm after a REALLY long drive from OC. The opener was Zom (sp?). Zom sounds like TOOL (I wonder why) but slower. They're a very dark-sounding band. Although I probably should've paid more attention, I didn't cause I was there to see TOOL. The Ventura Theater has three levels (plus a balcony); The pit was full, so I started out on the next level up. While waiting for TOOL-time I notice this guy wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and over that, a nice white-and-flower print dress. Uh-huh. When you go, be sure to pay attention to the stuff they're playing between bands. There's some Monty Python, novelty songs ("Up the Poop Chute"), spoken word performances, and what sounds like dialog taken from a porno movie. Funny stuff. So at 9:30 the lights go down, and this guy comes out to make an announcement. He says that TOOL has taken some of the proceeds from the show to fly a 7 year old kid out from Florida to see his first rock and roll concert, and the kid wants to say something. So, this guy comes out (looks like he's 35, balding), grabs the microphone, and says "I'm the son of Satan!". Then TOOL hit the stage. They opened with a new song. (In fact, every other song was new). This first one was OK, meaning if it was someone elses song it'd be the best thing on their album. Now, I'd read some of the concert reports about Maynard and how he stares out over the crowd as he sings. And boy, are they right. He looks like he's staring RIGHT AT YOU. So, first song over, Maynard says that they've got a new bassist, and that Paul was in the opener (that's why I should've paid attention) and will be doing things with Failure as well. He introduced "Bottom" by saying "This is a song". Evidently dress-boy liked Bottom, because at certain points he started bouncing up and down. I mean, he was jumping up and down a good two to three feet! Because of this, and also because it was impossible to see more than one person on stage at a time, I made my way up to the balcony. Now, I'm hardly short (5'11"), but these events always make me feel puny, cause it seems like there are always three people six and a half feet tall in front of me. The view from the balc was unobstructed. Oh, for part of the spoken word in Bottom, I think Paul came out to do it. Next song was called "Animal" (the only one where he told us the title) and one of the two best new songs they played. Next was "Sober", new song, "Prison Sex", looong new song, "Intolerance" (very fucking intense), new song, "Swamp Song", and another new song with some voice box work to end the set. For encore they played "Crawl Away". The new song after "Prison Sex" was probably the only one that seemed like it has commercial possibilities. I doubt if the new album will be a commercial one, which IMO is a good thing. They only played for 1 1/2 hours, which at first pissed me off, but then they've only had the new bass player for a short time, so we were probably only getting the songs he knew well anyway. Although they could've made him learn something from "Opiate"; they didn't play anything from that :(. Performance quality-wise, the band was in fine shape. Maynard's voice was strong from beginning to end, and the only problems they had was Adam's guitar sounded a bit out of tune during the beginning of "Sober". The sound wasn't too loud either. Now, some people may think that sucks, but they're wrong. Many moons ago I saw Judas Priest (free tix), and it was so loud you couldn't even tell what song they were playing. One of the things that sets TOOL apart is their dynamics; how they can play quietly at one point and then rev it up and blow your ears off the next. Another point from the concert reports is how they play some songs slower. That was the case, but they are just that much more intense because of it. (A repo man is always intense.) So, despite the brevity of the event, it was an excellent concert. Hey, what else can you expect from TOOL? As everybody was filing out, some guy was handing out fliers. Dokken is playing there next week. ROTFL. BTW, the T-shirt lady said the new album should come out in mid summer :-<.