From: Peter McCourt (Mccout@synflux.com.au)

	Here's a review of Tool at the Equinox festival at Macquarie
University on Saturday the 29th March (easter Sat). 

The Setlist was as follows (in order, I think -hope i didn't forget a
song)

1. Crawl Away
2. Stinkfist
3. Forty-Six & 2
4. Eulogy
5. Prison Sex
6. Sober (no intro jam thing)
7. Opiate
8. Aenema

	Tool came out as night fell with Adam and Justin coming onto stage
first. Adam was painted blue and Justin was either red, pink, brown or
nothing (i couldn't really tell, but i think it was red). Maynard and
Danny walked on next with Maynard in his boxers and painted half blue,
half white and then walked to the front of the stage and took about 3
photos of the crowd, soon after the show began. Before Eulogy Maynard
was facing Danny and had his camera pointed behind him and took some
more pictures of the crowd. They played the extra bits in Stinkfist and
also Prison Sex.

	Maynard said i few things such as (not exact quotes):-

	'did you miss us?'

	'we're playing a show in Syndey in about a week and your all
invited'
	
	before opiate - he talked to us about the equinox and how stages
of life reflect the half moon and the full moon or something and then how
later you realise that the light you give of is not only coming from you
but also from a higher source.  and that this next song relates to this or
maybe it doesn't (note - something like this was said but don't just rely
on my memory of it) 

	It was a great show, but seemed different from other shows played
in other countries (from other reviews i've read) as there was no video
screen or any jam before sober- but this was probably due to it being a
festival gig. They played for just over an hour for those who would like
to know. 
	
	In my opinion most of the other bands at the festival were fairly
poor but that's just my opinion and I didn't go to see them anyway. 

Peter Mccourt

(mccourt@synflux.com.au)








From: Paul (piji@actonline.com.au)
Subject: The Equinox Festival (tour review)

[warning:  long review]

Well anyways to start off with a little backround information, and make it
easier to understand the atmosphere there, here's the situation.  11 am
the gates were supposed to open, and I don't know why, but I was under the
impression it would be at the Macq. uni bar...  How wrong...  we were all
herded in the front gates to a big oval, set up stadium style, half an
hour after they were actually supposed to be opened...  So, here now is
ten's of thousands (literally i'm pretty sure) people roaming around this
huge place lined with food and other commercial crap, with barely a shady
spot in sight.  The central piece of the whole place was the nice double
stage set up out the front, and the hundreds of bright yellow security
people :)  where do they find em? 

People were stumbling around like lost sheep at first, lining up in rows
for their wristbands to buy alcohol and such, and having no idea when and
who were playing.  eventually, one of the stalls started handing out
program things, with all the times the bands were supposed to be playing,
which you would think would help a little.  Nope.  Tool of course, were
playing one of the last time slots there, 7:45pm - 9, which means most of
the people there headed for the gates suddenly (in order to get out and
come back later for the band they actually wanted to see).  Only to be
turned back because Ticketek (*our* version of TicketBastard) had decided
no pass-outs were allowed so that once you were out, that was it, out for
good.  Which meant as the tens of thousdands of people there for one
reason and one reason mostly, tool (well that and an excuse to get pissed
and bonk in the shrubbery), had to stand around and wait for 8+ hours for
what they paid their money for.  ...These people became madder as the time
went on.  I probably would have been one of them, but I didn't mind a few
of the acts there like The Mark Of Cain and another bunch called K's
Choice or something like that.  and in between since I was on holidays I
just caught up on some sleep at the edge of the fence near the stage. 

[...7 or so hours, several crappy hot dogs and warm beers later...]

"they" (as in the people arranging this sorry mess) finally started
shutting down the techno tent (surely sent from hell) that was up the back
of the stadium-setup interfering with the main noise...  Skunk Anansie
took the right hand stage and everybody knowing who was coming on next
decided that now was the time to move.  The poor bastards/bitches from
skunk anansie might have felt just a little unwelcome when the main
movement of the crowd went to the left stage rather than right for their
entire set, to ensure their good positions for the upcoming feature. 
Anyways, after much loud convincing from the crowd, Skunk anansie finally
went off (people chanting "TOOL!" and "GET OFF!" simultaenously). and then
it was dark. 

Here was I expecting this big loud bass movement through the speakers, and
lights and screens that I'd read about in the tour reviews so far but
nothing.  Just the weight of hundreds of people pressing us forward.  See
by this time i'd managed to get a nice spot right up the front pressed
behind this bizarre horny blonde woman (don't see a lot of that where I
come from, boring, smallish city), about 4 squeezed people from the front
barricades at the centre of the stage.  BIG MISTAKE :)  anyways before any
more, i'll give you the entire setlist before I forget... 

Crawl away  - nothing strange i think
Stinkfist  - extended part before "I'll keep digging", and *slow*
46 & 2 - normalish
Eulogy  - strange short extended outro
Prison Sex - with the extra verse from the FAQ, beautiful :)
Sober  - we didn't get the 10 minute intro talked about, but it had
         and extended bridge part as well...
Opiate - normalish
Aenema - normalish

...now the weird parts.  they did get on stage right on time, which was
good.  They seemed very "off" though which is bad.  It was like they
didn't really want to be there.  things like the lack of any real
"intensity" in any of the songs, you know where maynard just screams and
stares and you can hear it coming from the deepest darkest depths of his
soul (or something equally groovy ;) )...  it was all clean, and kinda dry
after a while.  Adam was the same, he was playing kinda soft and would
kinda play softly and uninterestedly at times.  and justin, his bass
sounded off, clean and didn't have that kinda "clanking" quality to it
that we know and love and i have heard on bootlegs before so I know its
not my imagination.  All in all it was pretty dull after the first two
songs, the best performance coming from Danny, who was just friggin
incredibly on those drums, especially 46&2.  amazing. 

The crowd was expecting a lot more I think, we just moved incredibly
during Crawl away, it was impossible to move indiivually, breath properly
or anything, you were just lost.  out of the piles of concerts i've been
to before, from progressive rock to death/black metal, this was the most
intense pit i've ever been in.  now i'm not small either, 6'2" and in
black as always with my black overcoat but I was even finding it hard not
to get crushed in there at first.  just after they started in the chorus
at stinkfist though, i was hit by the vacuum of falling people that kind
of moves slowly through a pit like that, filling in the holes after it as
it moves along.  was down for like 2 minutes with people jumping and
crushing me before I was finally able to get enough arms from everybody
else to get up again.  Ever been like that before?  you start thinking
that one of those boots is going to land in your face or on your neck and
you're going to just die right there or something horrible and you can't
breath or see the sky, only solid walls of people.  freaky shit, but i got
lucky and got out.  after that though I and several other people did our
best to get a little further out into slightly more sane territory.  I
mean I can almost understand it, these people were waiting all day for
this and just got more aggressive as the day went on, and you have to
remember that australia hasn't seen tool since 2 years ago at alternative
nation, and that was before any new material and their new look... the
painted thing kinda surprised most people :)  It's hard to remember always
how much people don't know without the benefit of the internet and a site
like yours.  Lots of meatheads anyway. :/

The disinterested blue and white maynard anyway didn't tell a single joke
through the whole thing, barely spoke (twice) and just walked off with the
rest of them, 25 minutes before the program had them finished, without an
encore or a word or anything.  It was pretty much a let down for most
people I think, I mean i wasn't terribly impressed either but I put it
down the fact that it was stadium rock and their first show.  Basically
this whole thing showed me for myself what things like Pink Floyd's The
Wall tried in someways to say, that Stadium rock, and most things
associated with it, are fucked.  from the crappy food to the atmosphere
and commerciality of the whole thing.  Hey is that even a word? :) 

Hmm.. what else... the things he said perphaps?  he mentioned once about a
show in sydney on the 11th or something (the one I thought hadn't been
announced officially or something) and said we were all invited, then he
talked about the Equinox itself which was kinda interesting, just before
Opiate.  It kind of struck me as strange but this is kinda how it went: 

many cultures and religions compare life to the cycle of the moon.  man is
born and you have the new moon, man reaches his brightest point in the
middle of the cycle like the full moon.  then finally man dies and you
have a new moon again.  And then there is there equinox, when the moon and
sun are at their full intensity and man finally realises that perphaps the
light that he has been giving off all this time might not be coming from
him after all and is actually a reflection from a higher source.  [brings
a cheer from crowd, im thinking okay weird, this doesn't sound like the
maynard i've read of] this next song has nothing at all to do with that
yet everything to do with it at which point they went into opiate, the
bass harmonics pullling another roar from the crowd...

I was surprised at how much of the older material they played though, and
was more disappointed at the lack of hearing third eye and the sober intro
live.  And then when they walked off it all seemed like, wait, you can't
be finished yet, we haven't got what we wanted yet.  Know what I mean
here?  :)  rhetorical.  Anyways, i guess we all left feeling a little
cheated like perhaps a late-virgin who has just discovered that sex isn't
everything it was cracked up to be... 

Hmmm so they're coming to my town in a week and half, and thats goig to be
home territory and much smaller, and I have faith that this gig is going
to be a bit better, cause otherwise this is goign to be one boring month
coming up :)  It wasn't like I thought it would be, the concert experience
of my life, i guess i've been to better, but it was different and okay I
guess and i'll let you know how the next one goes at the ANU bar. 

Hey, maybe i'll even catch em afterwards with the help of some people I
know here (no such chance in sydney) and I'll buy them an australian beer
:)  Until next time.... l8r

Paul.








From: Scott Caundle (scaundl@tpgi.com.au)

[Kabir's Note - This is the guy who's kept me up to date on Australian
Tour Info.]

Ok kiddies.If you wanted to know what TOOL was doing about 3 hours ago i
am here to tell you.They were on stage at The Equinox Festival here in
Sydney.

OK by the time 7:45pm came around 20 000 + fans had gather here to see
one allmighty show by TOOL.I am sure that 90% of them were just there
for TOOL.Being a festival and having 2 stages side by side,there was no
intro just the last band finishing and TOOL starting.Justin walked onb
stage first in blue jeans no shirt his body painted totally black,follow
by Adam blue jeans too and his upper body totally blue,Then Danny in
blue jeans(is there a trend here?)not painted at all then Maynard.His
body totally painted one side white the other blue.He was only wearing
white boxers with the TOOL symbol on it.BTW Justin had them on too.From
the minute they opened with CRAWL AWAY the crowd was going crazy.Mass
push to the front i was against the barricade in front of Justin and my
ribs are still feeling it.The power of TOOL live is something that has
to be seen to be believed.The moved on into Stinkfist,with a extra
guitar solo and the way this band brings songs that sound so perfect on
CD to be so perfect live is nothing sort of amazing.46&2 followed with
Maynard dancing around the stage like the clay figures from the
Skinkfist video.Here they stopped.Maynard saying that they would be in
Sydney in a few days for another so then annoucing this song is really
about nothing as the band move into Eulogy.From there so show just went
crazy,Prison Sex followed by Sober.The another break where Maynard
explaind how man grows by the moon.Life starts with the new moon,grows
and shines in the Half moon then ends and dies at the new moon
again.Blabed on a little about Easter being the perfect time to play
OPIATE!.It just amazed me live how this song and the songs of UNDERTOW
have not aged.It goes to show how far ahead of there time TOOL where and
in my opinion still are.Running out of time and with only 1 hour
allocated to them even as headliners,the lauch into �NEMA.Maynard
singing with all the loudness and passion he couled gather i am
sure.They are such a loud and tight band live.With the ending of �NEMA
maynard simple said thanks dropped the mic to the stage and walked
off.And that was it.I cant wait to see them headline there own shows
where they have more time to play there whole set.I am not dissapointed
at all.Even 5 minutes of TOOL live is great.Well until the next gig i am
off to.Which if anyone cares is the 8th April have a great time.

See Ya

Scott