A Review of the Fall 1996 Tour

Date: December 3


From: "Mike `Shmoo' Smuland" (jsmuland@osf1.gmu.edu) Subject: Tool: DEC 3: Show Review Ok I'm fresh from the concert (soaked in my own sweat actually). I'm dissapointed. Not by the performance, by the crowd. Defintely my last "rock" concert for a long time. Psychotica: bloody awful. their high frequencies were tweaked to make your ears bleed. which is stupid since both singers can actually sing. whoever said that the boy/girl thing w/ horns is attractive needs to get out much more often. "dc are you ready to rock?" "HELLO CLEVELAND!" anyway the only part of their set i enjoyed is when the lead singer picked on some kid in the front who threw shit at him. "the only reason he's doin' that is because he's going home alone tonight ... and his dicks this small." "this last song is about eating pussy and man's inhumanity to man." to bad the song didn't live up to the introduction. Tool: dug the intro music. forgot how freakin' spooky maynard looks when he grimaces. my first thought was that he looked like a sandman straight from the stinkfist video. 'course he was blue and white. and his dancing still kicks ass. let's see if i can get the order right ... 1. third eye i think they cut it short a bit unfort. but it was fabulous. maynard's voice was in fine form ... perfect form. incredible. 2. stinkfist included an extended bridge before "i'll keep digging ..." which was fantastic. maynard sang "elbow" but wasn't shut down. stunning. "is that the x-ray room over there?" (capital ballroom is used mainly as a dance club/ mini raves. the other room is kinda funky ... and red. 3. forty six & 2 they nailed this one most definitely. and its one of my faves. "this is justin ... he's from the french quarter of poland" 4. prison sex with the bonus verse of course. "have you ever loved someone so much that you wanted to kill them? ... me neither" 5. pushit surprisingly p.s. was not followed by jimmy. though when i screamed jimmy he seemed to smirk ... but maybe he was just happy. 6. undertow hoo-rah! 7. eulogy it's quite incredible to watch maynard pull off all the voice effects with his back to the crowd. he seemed to sing this one with extra punch. 8. sober long ass intro which was great. a couple flubs adam. danny looks like he has full command over the damnd rum set. i expected him to start using his fists. "alright, you all know the deal ... this is our last song. this is our last song. [boooooo!] this is the last song off our first album." 8. opiate sing-along time. [mini-conference on stage ... maynard seen shrugging with a look that seemed to say "i don't care either way" then the crowd finally picked up a bit and started going nuts and they decided to play ...] "alright, alright, alright. you know a lot of people think this song is about armageddon. it's about diving into the pool of higher consciousness and swimming. about choosing compassion over fear ..." [can't recall this whole quote.] 9. aenima it was nice watching maynard hop/creep around with his kness bent, head just barely above the monitors. kinda freaked me out. [i can't remember which song it preceeded but maynard said something to the effect of ...] "this song is dedicated to the assholes at 18418 N Hollywood Blvd. I want my fucking door back, Steve." alright, well there were a few chickenweasels yelled. and a few folks goin' "yeah, chickenweasel" and laughing in acknowledgement. little tool list buddy bonding. oh well. and the fucking raging drunks and flying elbows tainted the experience for me. but tool was fabulous. still the best performers i've seen. Dare to be different; just like everyone else. >>jsmuland@gmu.edu