concert reviews firsthand, immediate, from the heart
05/24/2001
[all times Central Time; t.d.n is hosted in the midwest]




Review written by: Erik Verheijden (erik@esverheijden.tmfweb.nl)
Review posted on: 05/24/01 19:42:13

Ok, it's 1:53 right now, I'm pretty worked up on beers and stuff, but gonna write a review anyway. First of all: The 013 is an amazing venue, it's kind of like a stairway build up from the stage, with a nice balcony on top. View on the stage is excellent from anywhere inside the theatre, and the design of the building is optimized to reflect a perfect sound acousticly speaking. We arrived there around 20.00 o'clock, stood in line for about half an hour and were in. Not the cue-around-the-building stories of america fame. Everyone seemed to be pretty relaxed about the whole thing. Security wasn't very tight. Only one check. A lotta stuff is identical to things you can read in other reviews. For the record: They played the standard playlist, with pushit in the original version. Ending was like salival-version though. Some comments though: - The grudge : Maynard in leather; no glasses though. Very tight playing. Great opener. Visuals: Bright-eyed dude spinning around. - Stinkfist : Nothing special, visuals got beyond the normal video though. - Forty-six & 2: The underwater visuals were pretty common troughout the show, though it certainly was a male and a female engaging in certain acts( whereas other posts talked about two females). - Reflection : The toilet-scene. There was some genuine 'the shining'style wallpaper in that room; don't know why noone else saw that. Headless man weas there; camera would plunge in toilet as described. Very impressive. During this part I kinda looked back to the crowd. Never forget the sight of some 1500 pairs of wide-opened eyes reflecing the visuals from the main screen. Could be due to the fact that some serious amounts of dubious substances were going up in smoke during the night. Overall it was excellent. Minor problems though were the sound: Maynard wasn't always perfectly audible, sometimes a bit distorted due to volume. And of course one could always bitch about the fact that they didn't play every single song in their impressive library. Maynard was dancing pretty much troughout the show in his own peculiar style though. Now on a personal note: I don't like the whole 'moshing' thing at all, don't think it's apropriate at a tool show. On another note, I think it's less common on European ground than in the states. However, tonight I was standing at some point some two metres from the stage, and the guys in front of me were only faintly bobbing their heads. That was during Opiate for god's sake! I am totally for a quite appreceation of tool, but when I'm dead centre in front of the stage, I'd expect some physical workout in one form or another. However, this was the first time I saw Tool live, and I loved every minute of it; it was awesome. I'm in the highly fortunate position to see them again in less then two weeks on the pinkpop festival, so I'm going for a more immersive experience there. This has been something of an unreal experiance, having been so close to the band, hearing all those great songs live. Sometimes you would be anticipated/exhilirated(spelled right?) about some chorus coming next, and right next the song would be over, leaving you bewildered that it's already over ! They could play opiate/pushit for for three hours for all I care ! Ok. I should call it a day. Bye to everyone now! Faith obscures ratio...

Review written by: Mark Heyblok (markheyblok@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 05/24/01 20:27:49

Well... here's my review of the show.. I life in The Hague, about 70 kilometres from Tilburg, where the 013-club is. So me and an friend of mine went by train to Tilburg. We went at 16.00, so we could take a "terrasje" (sit outside in front off a café and drink alcohol) and have some dinner with alcoholic beverages. At 19.30 we went to 013 and stood in line for 15 minutes. As soon as we were inside we bought some beer and settled ourselves in the main hall where TOOL would perform. We drank beer and inhaled the smoke of marihuana untill 21.30. That was about the time TOOL start playing.. they played the usual set as descriped before.. Maynard was wearin leather and told a story about "de bananebar", where he and the band had been, and saw a show where women do crazy sh*t with banana's. This was the first time i saw TOOL perform on a small stage, and it was absolutely AMAZING.. The perscussion was cool, Maynard sang like hell.. All the songs were one fine piece.. The lights and the video were amazing.. this was the best concert in my life..definitely. On our way home, i spoke to a girl who had also been to the TOOL concert, but she couldn't stand the images of flesh and the morphing skulls.. so she went to stand in front so the pictures weren't in her sight anymore. It was kinda strange to hear a girl saying this kind of stuff, especially when she's wearing a "Type O Negative" shirt...(I think the Type O is weird also..) Well..conclusion of this evening: It was a very very good concert.. there were cool people, no offensive yelling or fights..TOOL performed enormous.. i am still in shock..:-) and i bought a t- shirt..I wish i could feel this more often.. /\/\ark Heyblok (ohjajoh.xs4all.nl)

Review written by: Patrick (pwinsheimer@aol.com) Review posted on: 05/24/01 22:53:19

To me it was quite important to get to this show because Tilburg is only 2 hours by car from Düsseldorf, were i live, it is still more than a month until the Ddorf show, and it´s the very first show of the european tour. I managed to get tickets for the shows in Zürich, Paris and Ddorf already in March, but this one was sold out too fast, so i had to buy a ticket from a guy who wanted to have 100 Gulden for it, but i didn´t care, because it was at least what i had expected. The waiting from 16.00 o´clock until the opening of the doors went by very quickly, i was among the first to be let in and went to the stage immediatly to be in the first row. There was very little pushing throughout the whole show, so for me, being there, as close to the band as possible, was perfect. Here´s my greetings to Stella from Gouda, the girl next to me, with whom i agreed that it was quite ok Tool played without a support, so the waiting was not that long. Well, what can i say? First of all, Maynard´s voice was really hard to hear. Even between the songs, i was able to understand just pieces of what he said. The banana thing was, that Adam gave him a banana before schism, during which he held it in his hand and put it in his... no, just his mouth("We renamed this song ´Dirty Banana´". Later he gave an explenation for that, it was something with the Backstreet Boys and a misunderstanding, but i could hardly understand it. One moment that i liked a lot was when Adam (his face did seem to look a little sad almost all of the time) put off his shoes and Maynard cheered him "Adam, Adam, Adam..." while he did it. Other great moments where, when Adam and Justin stood together watching each other playing the intros of schism and disposition. And Justin singing along the lyrics of sober (i just could see his lips move, of course). Watching Dannys face and seeing how much he seems to live through what he´s doing. All the show was what i call really intensive. By the way, i can´t remember ever having seen a security going with the music and doing a sort of light moshing. This was cool, that even them felt good and didn´t mind showing it. For Tool, it´s a little bit of a risk, maybe, having a singer who´s not a frontman now, but more a "backman" doing "backingvocals", but no other band could do an experiment like this at the moment, and do well with it. Really everybody excepts it. The more i think about everything the more i realize that i just saw an extraordinary show of an extraordinary band, that can´t be compared with anything else in todays music biz. Now it´s just a few days for me to deepen this thought once again, and i´m already burning for it. I hope that i will be able to post a review for the Zürich show on wednesday. Thanks for reading it. Patrick

Review written by: xrazor (xrazor9@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 05/25/01 04:11:39

I crossed 1700 km (from YUGOSLAVIA to HOLLAND)to see first Europian Tool gig this year. The concert was already SOLD OUT 20 days ago,but I didn't mind it, I just hit a road,cause inner voice told me that I'll find a way to come in. And that is what actually happend,i came in 15h in front of the venue,and there was ONLY 1 GUY sitting on the ground beside the enterance,we just looked to each other,and it was like a spark...he came to sell one +ticket for a same price as he bought it. So I got a ticket for 60 Guldens(28 $)...it was revelation... I'LL SAY NO MORE...Toll concert is simply impossible to describe with some general words;but u got to be there and FEEL IT TOWARD YOURSELF...that's it from me BELIEVE IN YOUR WAY p.s. Kabir thank you for wishing me luck,as you can see it worked! Greetings from your pall Jovan

Review written by: jovan (xrazor9@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 05/25/01 04:15:03

I crossed 1700 km (from YUGOSLAVIA to HOLLAND)to see first Europian Tool gig this year. The concert was already SOLD OUT 20 days ago,but I didn't mind it, I just hit a road,cause inner voice told me that I'll find a way to come in. And that is what actually happend,i came in 15h in front of the venue,and there was ONLY 1 GUY sitting on the ground beside the enterance,we just looked to each other,and it was like a spark...he came to sell one +ticket for a same price as he bought it. So I got a ticket for 60 Guldens(28 $)...it was revelation... I'LL SAY NO MORE...Toll concert is simply impossible to describe with some general words;but u got to be there and FEEL IT TOWARD YOURSELF...that's it BELIEVE IN UR WAY p.s. Kabir thank you for wishing me luck,as you can see it worked! Greetings from your pall Jovan

Review written by: Guyon Moree (guyon.moree@tradesoft.nl) Review posted on: 05/25/01 04:34:41

first off, it was sooo cool. Ok, the tickets were sold out in 10 minutes and I didn't manage to get them. After hours of desperate searching on the internet and postings ads on numerous sites. Finally someone called me, but i wasn't home at the moment. So this guy called the next one on his list. This next guy was a friend of mine who also bought a ticket for me. After almost losing hope in getting a ticket i was actually going to see TOOL live, after paying twice the price though(!). After being half an hour late they kicked off with The Grudge. The sound was so good. The visuals were amazing. During their small intermission they played the Schism video, wich i never saw before, wich is SUPER AMAZING... They played a similar playlist as in the US shows, but with some difference, for example Pushit(oooh). Though i don't really have a favorite(like 'em all) i hoped they play No Quarter, cause i like it and is kind of special, but they didn't. Closing the s how after two hours(!!) of playing with no supportact they left me sweating and impressed. Woke up this morning with TOOL still humming in my head. all this in one word.... WOW

Review written by: Marc Regter (marc.reggie@wxs.nl) Review posted on: 05/25/01 04:58:58

Well, we survived this one. It was Thursday 24th of May. In Holland the weather is hot and so is the weather in the beautiful venue 013, Tilburg. After waiting in line for about a half an hour we got in. I was very pleased to see that Tool were the only band playing. I wasn't interested in other bands. I just wanted to see Tool. This was my first time and most certainly not my last. I hope to see them again at the Werchter festival somewhere in July. They played the setlist as expected. The sound was loud and very clear. The first song almost blew my head off. "Pushit" has always been my favorite song and I'm very glad they played the album version and not the Salival version. When they played "Aenema" I almost cried. I can carry on for hours but I'd like to keep it short. Just go and see them for yourself. The most unusual band of the last ten years. Tops,

Review written by: Davy (smashtheclock@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 05/25/01 05:12:50

It's the morning after. N.P. The Patient A lot of Dutch/Belgian/German Metalheads would disagree, but - looking back - I for one am happy the Dynamo Open Air fest was called off due to the infamous foot&mouth disease (or to quote Maynard in the Dutch Oor-magazine: "fucking hippies licking cow feet"). For we got in return a full fledged indoor Tool show. No bulshit above, below and beyond, just Tool. But that said I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that an evening's worth of TOOL isn't hard to digest at once. Even now I cannot grasp the impact of the whole experience. Ears, Eyes, Stomach Wide Open. Having only two presale-points here in Belgium (the little dot on the map below Holland), I was one of the lucky few who managed to get a hold of a ticket when the Tilburg-show sold out in five minutes on May 5th... After reading some of the news on the mayhem that preceeded the four US-shows, I expected the same hassle outside the 013, but proved to be wrong. No pushing or shoving, not to many black marketeers. We were let in by eight, the show scheduled to get on by nine p.m. I liked the venue: the 013 is located in the not to busy surrounding of a small town, and, more importantly: inside the place was perfectly designed: with stairs ascending a little before the stage up to higher regions, there was no one who didn't have a less than great view of the stage and it's setup, and the enigmatic foursome that graced it an hour and a half afterwards. The two screens were set up as already mentioned, the smaller one delivering an opposate view of what was projected on it's moviescreen-sized big brother. Until then we had to endure some of the more digestable modern rock music and, as a lead in to the beginning of the show, a half an hours worth of passable housemusic, which proved to supply a very uncomfortble build-up as it stopped-and-went-on several time, leaving us all screaming after every stop. Until the lights went out. Which meant that the show got underway only by half past nine. Lateralus-inspired imagery provided the lead-in for the guys to take the stage. First Danny, followed by Justin and Adam. Maynard, all dressed in leather, with the aura of an army general, came on - appeared somewhat later. From the moment Danny 'drumsticked' the first song in until the final blast of Lateralus/Lateralis I was blown away by the sheer force, passion, and plain mind-nummingness of it/them all. The rest is history and can be read above below and beyond. Mesmerising. The setlist was the same as at the other shows of this tour, as this European leg was also dubbed the 'Preseminal' for the Lateralus promotion. It's my guess that after these shows there will be some more place and moment for the looseness in performance. For the moment I thing the band mostly needs is to work in and on the liveshow chemistry and communication, and that much more is to come later on in the tour schedule. Although they stuck to the list, I was completely blown of my feet by the experience. The technical mastery is out of anyones leage on this planet. Or the next for that matter, the way this band is their music, and at the same time represents it, gives it it's own live... It was my first Tool show, the second one in sight - the closer for the European preseminal at Werchter here in Belgium. Fuck the rest. We'll see each other at the otherside. spiral out keep goin spiral out keep going selfindulgent p.s. I really didn't like it when between songs people started shouting their songsuggestions towards the stage. Disregard&disrespect. TOOL is not a fucking juke box, you dutchies (dipshits). Keep that in mind. And point your funger up your ass.

Review written by: Bart (bart@genevasen.myweb.nl) Review posted on: 05/25/01 07:28:49

For over 4 years I had to wait to see them again, but after last night I can say it was all worth it. I don't think it's usefull to use all the stereotype superlatives to discribe what happened yesterday. I only what to say: TOOL is the best, not only on CD, but also live. I'm looking forward to Werchter, although they will perform there for just one hour, in the open air on broad daylight... Three things that work against them, but still I believe it will be great again. Another fact is that TOOl plays just after Deftones, so maybe Passenger with Maynard is a new highlight. Let's hope so.

Review written by: Lars Brouwers (larsbrouwers@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 05/25/01 08:29:38

Well this was my first Tool show, and I enjoyed almost every minute of it! We arrived at half past seven at the 013, so we decided to get a drink first. After that, we stood in line for about 15 minutes, and got through security without any problems. Everyone looked relaxed, no troublemakers. I bought a T-shirt, and we went to the venue. We stood on the left side, about halfway up. We had full view on the stage. At 21:35 the show started, this is the playlist as far as I can remember: - The Grudge - Stinkfist - Forty-Six & 2 - Prison Sex - Schism - Pushit - Disposition - Refection Schism video - Sober - Parabol - Parabola - Aenema - Opiate - Lateralus Maynard was bald, and dressed in leather. During the show, he removed his clothes until he was only wearing a pair of Speedos. (which my girlfriend liked :)) The others weren't wearing anything special. The show had great visuals, ranging from CGI to naked people swimming underwater to hypnotizing ehm...stuff. The visuals during Sober were especially intense, two naked women being "licked" by some kind of tentacle, causing them to freak out. Maynard talked a bit between the songs, nothing particularly amusing, except he threw a banana (or something) into the crowd, remarking "you don't wanna know where that has been." Oh yeah, they renamed Schism, it's now called "Dirty Banana" :) The crowd was great, there wasn't any moshing to speak of, they behaved pretty well in general. Except for a couple of idiots standing next to us who complained about the pre-show "homo music". It turned out that they only knew Opiate and the song Sober, and they were constantly shouting that they wanted to hear Jerk- off. So, after two hours the show was over, and Maynard said they would be back in a week or so, "somewhere". It was a great show. P.S. I didn't meet any -listers, but perhaps at Pinkpop we'll meet, being the lucky bastards that we are, seeing Tool twice within two weeks :)

Review written by: Willem van Bergen (willem@vanbergen.org) Review posted on: 05/26/01 08:56:22

Wow, my first Tool show. I knew it had to be something special, but it was even more than that: it was amazing, fabulous, great etc. Danny was playing a very good show. His "solo" on 46+2 was even better than it is on the album. Maynard was joking around a bit and he was fuckin' up a bit on Stinkfist, but even with this mistake it was a great song live. Opiate was extended in an impressive way. Adam and Justin were playing solidly. But I think this is one of the best things I have ever seen! I will certainly enjoy their next Dutch show on PinkPop (I'll be there!!!). I hope they will play a different set by then, that was the only negative point I can think of. Willem

Review written by: Luk Gerits (lukas@thisgirl.com) Review posted on: 05/26/01 09:48:34

First I would like to say that the show was fantastic. All the rest doesn't really matter... I'm from Belgium and getting tickets for this gig was as probable as winning the lottery. But I did, and far better than receiving a million dollars I got to see tool play! Together with a friend of mine we went by train, all the way to tilburg, wich took us some three hours. Peanuts. By the time we stepped outside the station I was beginning to feel very excited. Going to see tool in a few hours works up quite a buzz! This was going to be my eighth time seeing them perform live, but it's different every time. The venue club013 was perfect. Back in '94 they also performed in Tilburg, 'zaal Noorderlicht' it was called back then. And I can easily say that they've come a long way since that undertow-show! Actualy after the grudge maynard paused for a while and sort of smiled into the audiance, with a very nostalgic look. And he said that it had been a quite amazing journey to have come to this moment right now... The show was great. And considering this was only their fifth gig, they played with such ease and comfort! You could only tell by the few looks from adam to justin, justin to danny, and then maynard stepping in to see what the problem was. One would think after hearing lateralus that the set would be very load and not for the faint-'hearted, but instead it was so peaceful and balanced that it almost made me cry. To make a sexist remark: half of the audience was female, and boy were they enjoying seeing maynard dance around in his undies! The setlist was as posted above similar to the previous shows, except for pushit. Personaly I liked the grudge the best: maynard appearing in what looked like an Ubersturmbahnfuhrer outfit, ready to smother joung children in their sleep, standing perfectly still and directing, with his arm beating hard to the rhythm as the drum kicked in. Then Opiate, wich had a truly furious ending and in third place lateralus during wich the visuals were really impressive. As a whole you can only marvel at the quality of play, how connected the band was with the audience and above all maynards charismatic appearance. He may not like it but with looks like that he's destined to become worldleader some day. And what a leader he would be! After the show, we had to kill time until the first train in the morning. Not a problem! The vibe of the gig had set the town on fire and we partied all night long. And although tool sold 500 000 copies of lateralus in one week, danny just walked out the front of the venue and had a drink on a terrace right in front of it, and noone noticed! Or they didn't wan't to bother him, so you see just how nice and considerate tool-fans are!

Review written by: frank (undertow10@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 05/26/01 12:42:40

TOOLburg -Thursday, 24th 2001. TOOL played at 013 in Tilburg that night. If only you'd been there, man. It sucked you down into that hole and spat you out 'like a child' two hours later. The mind beaten up, the soul devoured, and emotions lost. There is no other description, nor do I intend to elaborate on this subject. TOOL was...TOOL, man. One big mental beating. Words are lost but can be refound at Pinkpop, Landgraaf, where I and Ray, Bauke, Marco, Leon, Marcel and other crazy people are going to see them again. We shall be there, to succumb to the forceful elements that are combined as one by only one band. And that band, ladies and gentlemen, is TOOL... My name is frank,...good night.

Review written by: B.Bergmans (brunold@freemail.nl) Review posted on: 05/27/01 09:28:41

It was a great gig. I arrived at 20:40 and there was a long line of people waiting for the entrance. I've never seen such a long line before the venue: 013 in Tilburg. Luckely security wasn't too tight so that I only stood outside for 15 minutes. When I was inside the complex I directly went to the concerthall. The venue was packet with people and it was difficult to go forward (the people could only enter the venue from the backside). The original performance time was 21:00 but I think that the huge crowd that was still outside was the reason the started later. So there was an annoying dancetune for half an hour. At 21:30 they started with a long introtune. Maynard entered last and stood on a small higher stage. His outfit was an all leather motorcycle outfit. He started with sunglasses but took those off pretty fast. I was surprised with the animated videos during the songs and the perfect synchronisation between the music, videos and voice of Maynard. He almost sounded like the studio albums. Songs I liked less were Disposition and reflection in the first part and Parabol, Parabola in the second. Overall I was totally satisfied with this concert and I spend a well worth Ÿ61,- (about $27.-) for the ticket. They played exactly 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Review written by: Daniel van Os (athotmeel@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 05/28/01 02:55:59

The pieces fit. Tool was to play the Dynamo and Pinkpop festivals in Holland, but no clubs. So I bought a ticket for the show in Dusseldorf (Germany) as well. Then Dynamo was cancelled and 013 booked Tool. Ofcourse I bought tickets for that and in the week before the show I heard that Dusseldorf show was rescheduled to a large hall. So indeed, not that bad that Dynamo got cancelled :) When we arrived at 013 there was quite a long queue already and lots of people asking for tickets. Because we still had plenty of time we went to eat some icecream. All over downtown Tilburg people were holding up signs requesting tickets. When someone asked me for a ticket I said: "No, and if I had an extra ticket I would go twice myself!" The queue, though long, moved pretty quick. We checked out the t- shirts but I didn't like them that much. I'm way past my black t- shirt period I guess. I was hoping to see Cortizone, but I guess they weren't in Europe yet since the first shows were all supposed to be festivals. At about 21.30 the show started with The Grudge. Maynard came on stage looking like he stepped right out of Mad Max, dressed in leather wearing some cool goggles. Maynard asked if we had missed them and wondered what we had been up to the past few years. He invited us to catch up. We a cacophony arose from the audience he said: "One at a time please! We'll start on this said with all the A's. Okay, no A's. All the B's then. Wahh, just kidding!" After talking about how far they got and stretching the importance of communication he announced Schism. At that time he had received a banana and said: "From now on this song is called 'The Dirty Banana'" I hadn't read any reviews of the U.S. shows (I kept myself from reading them) but I did noticed there was no video footage on Schism. The video was presented to us in an intermezzo. After Schism he threw the banana in the crowd and said something like "I dare you to eat it.... I'm not telling where it's been." Then after the next song he said: "Let me clear up some confusion about the banana. In Amsterdam we were send to this place where the Backstreet Boys were during an indecent act. We found out that they had been watching the indecent act, we thought they were performing it. Now that is something I would have paid money for." During the begining of Lateralus there was some confusion it seemed. Maynard was sitting kneeled down on his stage, Adam was making little noises on the guitar. And this went on for a while. Then Justin started to look a bit puzzled at Danny. Maynard got up and said something to Danny, went back to his kneeled position and then they started to play. After seeing this show I wonder, what are they going to play at the Pinkpop festival next week? They can only play 1 hour there! Ah well, I will see! Daniel