concert reviews firsthand, immediate, from the heart
06/14/2001
[all times Central Time; t.d.n is hosted in the midwest]



Review written by: Sean (sean@scanwebsolutions.com)
Review posted on: 06/14/01 22:38:31

I wish I had written down the setlist, but I'm sure that someone will post it soon. It was a short show, that started after the swedish sun (finally) went down, around 11:15pm here. I remember specifically hearing Stinkfist, Sober, and bunch from the new album (still haven't memorized all the song titles). But the number one song had to be Parobola, which blew the f*cking sh*t AWAY!! Other than that, nothing too crazy happened... there were two video screens playing weird footage of weird people, in the theme of the Stinkfist video but with nudity and other oddities. Maynard was dressed pretty normal, no bikini underwears like the Perfect Cirle show at the NorVa. All I have to say is: Danny Carey. done. ok, not quite: can somebody please email me the setlist and any possible way I could get the audio from the show in digital format???

Review written by: Dennis (dinogfx@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 06/15/01 01:18:25

Om någon har konserten inspelad på video eller kassett, kontakta mig NU! Jag måste få köpa en kopia. Missade själv spelningen, grrrrrrrrr!! Dennis

Review written by: Harald Sørensen (harald@euphoria.no) Review posted on: 06/15/01 01:29:43

Setlist: 1. The Grudge 2. Stinkfist 3. Eulogy 4. Schism 5. Parabola 6. Sober 7. Lateralus No big surprices compared to the other festival shows they have played. Only Eulogy instead of Forty-Six & 2. To bad they were 10 minutes late on stage. Maynard had obviously been told the exact time they had to leave the stage, due to the next band to play. He was looking at his wristwatch all the time. The stage manager must have listened to the lyrics of Sober... He entered the stage after that song, pointing his finger. "Only one more!" As a result of that, we missed Opiate or Ænema, which usually is played before Lateralus :-( The "dark" (as dark as it gets in Sweden during summer :) arrived just in time to make the important video screens visible to the crowd. Maynards position was in front of one of them, making it possible to view both his "shadow dance" and the amazing graphics at the same time. This combined with quite good "festival sound" and a great performance by the band, made it an awesome multi sense journey!!! The last song was a continous euphoric experience. All emotions was over stimulated... Over analyzing may seperate the body from the mind, but a little over stimulation will definatly make them reunite :-) I won't mention all the boring stuff about this was my first chance to see the band since they visited Oslo 8 years ago, that 55 minutes of Tool was worth 12 hours in the car, $200 expences for the journey and the 3-day festival ticket. I know you hate it, so I'll skip that ;-) Thank you Tool! You are great genuine aritsts!!! PS! Don't forget Norway next time. eu-pho-ri-a

Review written by: Master Reviewer (@aol.com) Review posted on: 06/16/01 05:44:30

America: Do you have any idea how LUCKY YOU ARE to have KING CRIMSON opening for TOOL? It should be the other way around. Assholes. Go study Crimson so you don't make idiots out of yourselves. DVD is called "Deja VROOM." It's like having Elvis open for the Beatles, which would be really amazing since two out of five are dead. Fucking Americans. Die.

Review written by: wafers (Erik_Ternstedt@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 06/17/01 12:37:18

Maynard wore a cap with plaits under it. A "Winnie The Pooh" t-shirt and yes they did rock pictures from the concert: http://www.rockparty.se/justnu/sidor/torsdag/recensioner/tool /default.htm look at the t-shirt. That man rocks

Review written by: Martin (mycketmat@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 06/18/01 08:16:47

TOOL live at the Hultsfred Festival, or The Significance of Winnie the Pooh in Enochian Ritual Magic Setlist: The Grudge Stinkfist Eulogy Schism Sober Parabola Lateralus Let me start by stating that I have never seen TOOL live before. I have been a fan since I discovered ³Undertow² in 1994, and ³AEnima² is my all time favorite album. From my short experience of ³Lateralus² so far, I can say that it might usurp that place. With all that in mind, it was with great expectations and a little fear that I took place before the Pampas Stage at the Hultsfred Festival, to witness TOOL¹s first gig on Swedish soil since they opened for Rage Against the Machine back in 1994. During my time as a freelance music journalist I¹ve seen hundreds of concerts, and witnessed awesome performances by bands such as Deftones, Ministry and The Young Gods. For TOOL not to disappoint me, they would have to place in the top five of all the bands I¹ve seen. I was actually scared that they wouldn¹t measure up. What if the gig was ³only² good, and not absolutely mind-blowing, like I wanted it to be? The stage was rigged unlike anything I¹ve ever seen. On stage left was the guitar rack. Towards center stage, and slightly behind the guitar amps, was a small podium in front of a projection screen, with a microphone stand on it. Beyond center stage, to the right, was the biggest damn drum kit I¹ve seen. Further right was the bass rig, and behind this, actually in between the bass rig and the drum kit, was another, larger projection screen. It was just like the stage setup I¹ve read about from TOOL¹s US gigs. Expectations were high through out the entire crowd. Just ahead of where I stood, a guy announced the time to the announced start time over and over, like some medieval herald. ³Nine minutes left, everyoneŠsix minutes left, everyoneŠ.² And so on. While the crowds were nowhere near as big as during Iggy Pop¹s or even Limp Bizkit¹s gig, there were several thousand gathered in front of the Pampas Stage. The time announcement guy told us he thought that many people didn¹t know what they were about to miss. He was absolutely right. Almost twenty minutes past the announced time, the stage lights dimmed and the projection screens lit up with the image of the eye within the flame, from the ³Lateralus² cover, as a droning, typically TOOL-ish intro started. The band members took the stage to the cheers of the crowd. Much to my amazement, Maynard wore blue jeans, a t-shirt and a beanie adorned with braids and bows. Slightly bizarre, yet nowhere near previous ³stage costumes². Still, with TOOL, one has come to expect the unexpected. The band kicked off with ³The Grudge², the mighty opening track from ³Lateralus². Over the weeks before the festival I had gone through the setlists from previous shows, so I had a pretty good idea what songs the band would play. Nevertheless, it was simply put awe-inspiring to hear that first song. Here they were, in the flesh, playing before me. Following ³The Grudge² was ³Stinkfist² (³Song #1² for those of you brainwashed by American MTV), a personal favorite of my girlfriend¹s. She has a strange fascination with the phrase ³this will hurt a little but it¹s something you¹ll get used to², and she was pleasantly surprised as Maynard had changed the lyrics at the end of the song from ³Elbow deep inside the borderline. Show me that you love me and that we belong together. Shoulder deep within the borderline. Relax. Turn around and take my hand² to ³Elbow deep inside the borderline. This will hurt a little but it¹s something you¹ll get used to. Shoulder deep within the borderline. Relax. Turn around and take my hand². Nice. After ³Stinkfist² Maynard spoke for the first time. A simple ³Hi², and nothing more. I had no idea what to expect when it came to between songs-banter, as I¹ve read accounts of both near silence and long tirades of, well, weirdness. Then came the biggest surprise of the whole show, as Maynard picked up a second microphone and the band proceeded to play the ³Eulogy². From what I¹ve read so far, it hasn¹t appeared on any of the other shows. Personally, I would rather have heard ³46 & 2², one of my all time favorite TOOL tracks, but ³Eulogy² isn¹t far behind, and I didn¹t have much say in the matter, did I? The rest of the set contained few surprises. ³Sober², ³Parabola² and ³Lateralus² followed the single off ³Lateralus², ³Schism². Maynard talked little, except introduce ³Sober² (simply ³This one is called Sober²), before taking a minute to talk to the crowd before ³Lateralus². He urged us to use whatever we were feeling after the show, whether it was good or bad, to go out and do something positive with it. ³Or you could just have sex. You have about nine minutes to get naked. Begin.² Somehow it felt just like what you would expect him to say. Anyway, setcloser ³Lateralus² was absolutely stunning, and next to ³Sober² and ³Eulogy² the highlight of the set. Most of our attention was focused on Maynard, as he was clearly visible against the projection screen all the time, if only as a silhouette at times. Contrary to what I expected, he was fairly animated, and moved a lot in rhythm with the music. Surprisingly enough, the t-shirt he wore bore the image of Winnie the Pooh. Will we hear songs about Piglet and huney on the next TOOL album, perhaps? Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor never left their places, and were rarely, if ever, lit up. Two dark shapes grinding out the trademark TOOL sound were all we saw. The there is the matter of Maestro Danny Carey. The man is a machine. The powerful percussion so evident on ³Lateralus² and only hinted at on previous albums permeated the entire set. Too bad he was mostly hidden behind his enormous drum kit. Through the entire set, the projection screens were awash with typical TOOL-ish imagery, probably courtesy of guitarist Adam Jones. It was all beautifully synchronized with the music and lyrics. During both ³Stinkfist² and ³Schism², the video for each song was played. In all, this was by far the best gig I have ever been to, which is saying a lot. The sound was crystal clear, the setlist was totally satisfactory and Maynard¹s vocals were impeccable (the only thing he couldn¹t quite pull off was the ³Alive² scream from ³Parabola²). The only disappointment was the fact that the band came on late and thus we only got to hear seven songs. I assume that one or perhaps even two more were planned. I sincerely hope TOOL takes the time to do a full European headlining tour, one that includes Sweden. 55 minutes is way too short a time to absorb the phenomena that is TOOL. For those of you reading this that haven¹t had a chance to see the band on this tour yet, I can only say this: do whatever it takes to see them. You¹ll regret it for a long time if you don¹t.