From: Godwithgun@aol.com

Well, that was mind blowing...here's a review...

Review of TooL in New Orleans - November 9, 1996
by Bartley Harrison


     Well, that was truly amazing...best concert I've been to.  The Cows
opened and they were half-good, but lots of people were yelling at them to
get off stage by the second song. But the crowd loosened up toward the end
and even cheered after a few songs. The lead singer from the Cows wasn't
dressed too funny: he was wearing jeans and a normal shirt with sunglasses
and an aviator's cap-thing. They played from 7:30-8:30. 


    State Palace Theater is laid out like a place where orchestras are
held. There are 2 balconies and a floor section with seats with a seatless
floor section, about 20 ft. deep and 150 wide, in front of it where the
pit was.  Pretty small pit and I wasn't in it. My seats were four rows
back, about 50 feet from the stage. Pretty good view. 


    Anyway, at 8:45 TooL came onstage and everyone went wild.  Here's the
song order(as best as my 2 friends and I could remember, the middle might
be mixed up, but all the songs are there): 
          1: 3rd Eye
          2: Stinkfist
          3: 46 & 2
          4: Prison Sex
          5: Eulogy
          6: Cold and Ugly
          7: jimmy
          8: Sober
          9: Pushit
          10: Opiate
          11: AEnema


    3rd eye: They started out with some kind of green fractal image on the
two screens.  The song was awesome and Maynard was using 2 mikes during
the song to make the different vocal sounds. Great song to open
with...truly amazing. 


    Stinkfist: Between 3rd eye and stinkfist, Maynard said(all quotes in
here are from memory, so they aren't exact, but the general idea is
there):  "It's nice to be here in New Orleans.  That guy on the left is
our new bassist Justin- he's English, but don't hold it against him. By
the way, we're TooL.  (cheers) Just wanted to clear up any confusion
there."  --They didn't play Stinkfist's video, but they did have this
video with a black dot moving through what could be compared to a negative
of Star Trek's warp scenes, but much cooler. 


     46 & 2: Really, really cool video for this one- it was just computer-
generated gears turning and falling apart and all kinda freaky stuff. I
think they play this song heavier than on the CD, because I was really
suprised by the way it sounded. Also, during this song, they shined black
spotlights on the band and they all glowed. Maynard was wearing boxers
which were dyed half blue(right side) and half yellow, just like the rest
of his body (or maybe his left side wasn't dyed, just normal skin color, I
wasn't close enough to tell).


     Prison Sex: The video was parts of the released video, but it was
weird, because it was all out of order and parts of it were negatives and
parts of it were in red. Also, he sang that extra part with "spread your
wings"- I think its in the FAQ. 
     
     Eulogy: Once again, he used two mikes, one had a huge filter on it. I
forgot the video of this one. Everyone sang along with the slower parts. 
It was cool, 'cuz you could actually hear everybody. 


     Cold and Ugly: Can't remember this video either.  Before the song he
said "This is a little song about being scared." After Maynard said that,
someone yelled: "Throw that Bob Marley wannabe mutherfucker outta here."
No reaction from Maynard... 


     jimmy: Can't remember the video, but it may have involved naked
Indians jumping up and down. Before the song Maynard said: "This song
andPrison Sex are songs about a cycle. The first stage of the cycle is
Prison Sex in which some event triggers the unrepressing of a bad memory
and the grief and anger this unrepressing brings about.  The second cycle
is jimmy, in which you recognize and deal with this memory.


     Sober: Before the song, Adam was doing something weird with his
guitar.  I think its made by doing a slide or plucking the string while
turning the tuning knob loose then tight then playing with it alot...makes
a noise like in the beginning of Prison Sex, but it went on for about five
minutes. I think the video was from the MTV video, but I'm not sure, 'cuz
i can' remember the mtv video.  It involved an old guy opening and closing
a cabinet from the view of a person in the cabinet. EVERYONE sung along
for this song...It was kinda corny. 


     Pushit: Can't recall a thing from this song...sorry. 


     Opiate: Before the song, Maynard said, "This is the last
song...(everyone boos...5 second pause)...off our first cd." Once again,
everyone sang along.  I'm wondering if this singing along thing is
normal...or are we southeners just so damn nice that we decide to help the
singer a little...can someone answer this for me?


     AEnema: After Opiate, everyone put their instruments down and walked
off to the left side of the stage. They leaned on the amps and appeared to
have some sort of conversation. Of course, the crowd kept on cheering, so,
after a minute or two, TooL walked back, picked up their instruments and
Maynard said: "Well, since you're so damn persistent(cheers), we've
decided to play another song, even though it was on the set in the first
place...This is a song about LA falling into the ocean."(except he worded
that "LA falling into the ocean part better.) The video was really good.
It had this guy whose head was being wrapped in wire and he started
bleeding...really creepy. (I may be going out on a very weak limb here,
but I thought the guy resembled Henry Rollins...  Idunno.) 


I think that's it... 


-bartley completed at 8:35 pm, November 10, 1996...less than 24 hours
since TooL took the stage.