A Review of the Spring 1997 Tour

Date: February 27


From: " Chris Alexander" (themassive1@hotmail.com) Subject: Concert review Feb. 27 Convention Hall Nj Opening up were Blue Tip (they were OK) Also the Melvins kicked ass! I kid you not when i say they were almost as good as Tool. They opened up with this song called interstellar overdrive by Pink Floyd! On to tool: Third Eye Stinkfist Forty-Six and 2 Intollerance Eulogy Prison Sex H Sober Opiate Aenima By now I'm sure you all know that they open their set with a film background of the smoke box on fire. But it was really cool. Then they played Third Eye int this really pale blue light. Danny and Adam were the only ones not painted (I read he was going to be but i guess not) Justin was painted silver and Maynard was blue with white polka dots. He was contortioning his body in all sorts of ways. Adam was in jeans and a T-Shirt and did not fucking move at ALL (same throughout the night). Anyway the performance was great before that night I hated Third Eye and now it's my favorite Tool song. Then they played Stinkfist. They didn't have any feedback intro, they just went right into it. The film was this tunnel of light that was going really fast and was curving this way and that. (Does Adam do the computer animatrion for their shows? It would make sense). It really hightened the song. They changed the middle but in doing so took out my favorite section. (The "something kind of sad about....." till' "I'll keep digging") Anyway great performance. Forty Six and Two was ok Adams clean tone was gone! The begining bar in the 7/8 measure sounded like SHIT! It was OK. I didn't like the film it seemed to repetetive to me. (It was this computer animation thing of evolution, with the human finally changing into a skelleton and the skelleton going back into a skelletal ape). He introduced Intollerance as this: "Is anyone out there from the Military Academy?" "If you are you shouldn't be here" "This one's for you". And they played it really slow, too. It was heavier which was good but I like it quicker. The lighting was cool because it was this Darkish red. It looked kind of like Undertow's cover. Eulogy was I.M.H.O. the best song they played that night. I can't remember the film cif there was one. I know it was a light sea blue lighting and if you looked on the wall you could see spiral lights (not to mention a huge shadow of Danny on the ceiling). It was very inspiring to here me and a few hundre voices going "Don't you Fucking Lie! You must be Crucified! and: GoodBYE!!!" Then they played Prison Sex which was a very good version, they played that one a little bit quicker than on Undertow. The film was very cool at first it was this tunnel of prison bars and then it was like the Prison-Sex video only with a computer generated image (my friend says centipede) as the lead character. Then they played H (Maynard dedicated it to his friend) which was all good. The film was very psychedelic with these Liquid fingers jumping verrry slowly in unison. If i already wasn't on a contact buzz (there was SO MUCH FUCKING POT THAT NIGHT!!!) i would've been amazed. He stopped in the middle where it gets quiet to silence the already singing crowd. Sober was next and that was awesome, the film was again too gaddamned repetitive. They took certain shots from the video and just looped them over and over. But it was still very cool and very worthwhile to hear the entire place (the venue sold out) sing "I am just a worthless liar" Next they played "Opiate". He intro'd it "This might be the last song we play tonight" which altough I knew wasn't true I thought "at song 9?" He even thanked us for coming out. Ict was exactly like the recorded version only LOUDER! It was somewhat depressing that not very many people knew what the song was called (My friend asked "Was that Cold & Ugly?) and that me and only about fifty people knew the words. No film I think. Then they stopped and met at the center of the stage. I knew they were going to play Aenima and my friend bet a T-Shirt tha they wouldn't (ha! I won) Maynard got on the Mic: is it true about new jersey being a dump. The crowd: some no and some yes. Maynard: can anyone guess what this is? (does the Hey! Hey! crowd goes nuts. He stops) It's a pair of pants! (general confusion. He resumes heying) They messed up the beginning and Maynard wasn't screaming but it was still all right. The film was simply these waves collored electricly. Then the lights went on. Some other notes: They sold out Convention Hall. The only other two bands that I know of that did that are Pantera and No Doubt (No Doubt only because they kept postponing the show). ASo be proud. My Tool shirt turns out to be a bootleg. But it looks pretty cool so i was wondering if anyone out there has another tool shirt they'd be willing to give me or exchange. Because my friend did pay $15 and being in a band i know other people making money and you not sucks, so I don't want to promote it. Good job on the page, Kabir! Keep it up. Hoping for Lollapalooza (them + Korn! Just think) TheMassive1@hotmail.com