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 :-<.