Tool at Lollapalooza 1997 Tour Reviews

Date: July 02


Review written by: Patrick Redd (predd33933@aol.com) Review posted on: 07/12/97 00:47:04 I'm not going to waste a lot of Kabir's space saying what everyone else has already said, but I will assert that Tool was incredible. Even the girls behind me who came to see Snoop Doggy Dogg praised Tool after their set. Intense. Visuals great. The band- morose. Maynard- subtley cynical, not-so-subtley angry. Great show.

Review written by: Carol Orsini (Reptileblood@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 07/05/97 00:26:21 Since Tool came last on the loooong range of bands the day seemed exceedingly long except for Korn and james. but as they were setting that idiot snoop's sage up my best friend, her brother and i , caught a glimpse of the gong with the pentagram on it that maynard uses for his shows. i had heard already about the infamous tits that Mr. Keenan sprouted during Lollapalooza and how real they were supposed to look but hearing that repeated over and over could not have prepared me for how intensely real they looked, and i do mean intensely. When he bounced, They bounced. Clad in hot pants knee socks and platform shoesMaynard was truly a sight to behold. After his firt song, hooker with a penis, he nonchalantly flipped his long brown pony tail and said " Your just jealous..". And he was absolutely right we were. I don't think i have ever seen a figure that was more beautiful than him that night. I didn't want to leave I wanted him to keep singing forever and the hour and 15 minuted that they played flew by like seconds. a little in to the show he began to play H. and said something like "when you have children you see everything differently". sadly to say there weren't too many people as into the show as we were but it didn't matter. It felt so personal, like he cared and when he played aenima it seemed like nothing else mattered that it was just the music. As we were walking out of the show after orbital played, i remarked to my best friend's brother how beautiful Maynard was up on that stage singing and he said yes but sad and we both decided that Tragically Beautiful was a good description.

Review written by: Zacgary Ballard (JBALLLMS@AOL.COM) Review posted on: 07/04/97 19:10:34 Amazing...breathtaking...augmenting and diminishing. elevating

Review written by: Andy (Yello5@aol.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 21:07:54 i was back in Maryland for the first time since i moved to Minnesota last August, and luckily i got to end my stay by going to lollapalooza on the last day i was there. i basically only went to see Tool, and would have gladly paid 40 bucks just to see them, as they neglected to visit the twin cities on their last tour. The rest of the day proved to be pretty entertaining as well, however. Korn was intense, Tricky hypnotic, and Snoop amusing, and i was absolutely blown away by Orbital's closing set. Tool made their entrance after an introduction of what i think was (-) ions, although i'm not postive. Justin was shirtless and painted white, minus the horns, Maynard had fake breasts and white hot pants, with his face painted white with lipstick and eye makeup that gave him an eerie mime-like appearance. He also had on a skull cap with long hair coming from the back of his head. The set list was as follows (exact, cause a friend managed to grab one for me) Hooker With a Penis Stinkfist 46 & 2 Swamp Song Eulogy Sober H. Opiate Aenema The comments i can remember from Maynard were something about lollapalooza t-shirts during hooker, a description of their music as postive and pro-evolution before 46 & 2(i think), a comment about how having a child changes one's perspective on things before H., and the introduction to the Aenema vid. i was standing in front of Justin a few feet from the gate, and the crowd was amazingly mellow. i really enjoyed being able to just watch the band right in front of me without being distracted by a bunch of beer-swilling football players elbowing and punching people. Maynard was very mesmerizing throughout the show, and i found it difficult to take my eyes off him. He basically seemed to be a part of the music, gyrating seductively while singing, and staggering back with the accents during the musical interludes. For the most part the songs matched the album versions pretty closely. There was a new part in Stinkfist, and the band extended the end of Eulogy, allowing for some amazing drum work from Danny. The highlights for me, although the entire set was incredible, were probably Eulogy, H., and Aenema. The video for Aenema is incredible, my favorite so far, and it will really be a shame if MTV doesn't play it. The band played along with the vid perfectly, and it made for a great way to end the set.

Review written by: Susan Grant (kbbf64d@prodigy.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 20:20:12 This was my first time seeing Tool live, and their show was nothing short of a dream. As everyone already knows, Mr. Maynard showed up in a busty body suit and hot pants. He looked great, and I must say, he wore his breasts with pride. They had one of the best light shows of the night (second only to Orbital), and Maynard's voice put the few real Tool fans in the crowd into a complete, numbing trance. There weren't many people standing and singing along, but that didn't really matter. My brother, my best friend, the other fans, and I screamed every syllable, and it somehow made up for all of the fuckheads who were sitting down. I hate to say this, but I was a little disappointed with their set list. Don't get me wrong, cause all of what they played rocked, but I really, REALLY wanted to hear Pushit and Third Eye. The highlights of the show, for me at least, were h. and aenima. Before they started h., Maynard said something really cool about how "you see everything so differently when you have children". The Aenima video was truly incredible, but I must admit, I was kind of distracted by Maynard's subtle "butt-wiggling". Mr. Keenan's on-stage presence was all-consuming, and he definitely had me in the palm of his hand. I left this show with a new view of the world as I thought I knew it. It was great. I'd like to thank all of the other Tool fans for coming out to show their support. It Was So Loud:)

Review written by: Paul Q (silver-x@ix.netcom) Review posted on: 07/03/97 16:50:19 During opiate, my friend said to me, "If he put that outfit on to be disturbing, it's worked, take it off". I'm so glad I stood in line for three hours for the tickets, I've never had the patience to do that before. I'm not going to repeat all of the other reviews so that's it. Oh and Shoop Froggy Frog was just as inane and talentless as I expected him to be. thank you Tool, PaulQ.

Review written by: Orpheus (cbhenry@visuallink.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 16:47:52 After a three hour trip to Washington, my friends and I got there about five o'clock. We got our discount tickets from a scalper, which was great because they were ground floor/pit tickets, for 30$. Not bad. When we got in, Tricky was on the main stage. Cool, hypnotic kind of show, really laid back. Not a very big crowd for them, they really didn't seem to be in to it. Then every one was pumped for Snoop. Before they brough all of his hip gansta shit onstage, I caught a glimpse of THE drum set and the 8 foot gong/pentacle type thing as well. That was cool. I don't know why everyone was exited to see Snoop. It was a couple of fat OGs and a very discontent Snoop and a scratch. Really dumb. Mr. Crowd participation didn't impress me much. I left during his set and came back at the end. Stage hands cleared the hip gangsta shit off the stage and brought Tool's stuff on. There was a lot of good tension in muh bones then. I had never seen Tool before. They messed with the lights and cameras a bit, and by then it was getting dark. I had managed to get myself up to about three rows back, and I figured I could work my way up to front and center. They did the 25K bass thing for a while then they all came out. They did their thing really well. Maynard is really kind of hypnotic when he's singing. Very captivating. I couldn't take my eyes off him for very long. He did this weird sort of gyrating thing, kinda like Henry Rollins, when he was singing and when the band brought the really great melodical and tribal interludes in he sort of well, let's say fell back like he was getting shot or something with the accents. It was cool. Maynard was also unimpressed with the magnanimions whom he kept silently insulting from above their heads. A couple times it looked like he got a hard on, and he unobtrusively took care of it. I was like "whuuuuuuut?" Danny was amazing, never missing a 'note'. As did Adam and Justin. No one really got into it, but it was still the most intense show I've seen. They did extended interludes in some songs, but always came back to their impeccable precision as a unit. Incredible. As the set winded down, I worked myself up to front row right in front of Maynard. We locked eyes several times. At the beginning of Opiate, before the 'choices always were a problem for you' line, Maynard delayed after Justin's chimes to once again silently scold the loud, drunken, fuckers yelling "hey dude, man I luuuuve them fat titties!!!!! HARAHLL!!!!", referring to his shirt, with an effective self-esteem lowering negative nod of his head and then proceeded with what looked like a seranade to me. He sang the entire beginning couplet with his eyes pointing in what looked like the direction of mine. Of course his eyes, being shadowed by the light, could have very well been pointing to the guy next to me, but I figured it was me since he had looked at me earlier, and also just because, well wouldn't YOU want YOUR favorite singer to look at you? They finished and Maynard sang the next song, Aenema, turned around, facing Danny. They finished and exited stage right. The crowd dissipated and I asked the security guard, who incidentally had been an ASSHOOLE the ENTIRE night, to grab the set list, and surprisingly he did. I hung around and see if Danny came out, but it was dark then and I was tired and shirtless, since my whole fucking shirt had been soaked with the sweat of me and my surroundings, beer, and marajuana smoke, which was freely blown everywhere, (not to my dismay!), but I never saw him. That's alright. I had a set-list. (which I showed everyone....even people I didn't know.....) Anyway, it was a great show, and a lasting impression. Satisfactory. :)

Review written by: Cullen Tierney (Apollyon@antisocial.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 14:59:44 WOW. thats all i can really say right now. i couldnt even begin to explain how awesome that was. This was my first concert, and i was not disappointed. all other concerts probably arent going to even compare though. As the other reviews said earlier Maynard was dressed in a tight, white underwear thing, hare-krishna pony tail, platforms, white knee-high socks and his face was painted white w/ black lipstick that sorta formed a little smile (kinda like the Crow). Justin was wearing jeans and he was painted white. Adam was just shirtless w/ jeans. Also, Adams hair was just brown, he didnt have it checkered anymore. Danny had a black, sleeveless weight lifting shirt on, black shorts and a baseball cap worn backwards. i didnt see him much behind his gargantuan drum kit. Their set consisted of the backdrop w/ the videos and trippy designs, lots of smoke and colored lights. They also wheeled out this big-ass gong that served no purpose but decoration. It just had a bunch of symbols and stuff on it. Stuff on the backdrop included clips of stinkfist, trippy green gear design, people marching, rhinos mating (btw, the male rhino had a HUGE dick, which entertained most of the crowd), camels, and just more various trippy designs. The new video was badass. Maynard said something like this about it (definitely not a direct quote) "for those of you who have M2, a new all video channel, we have a special treat for you tonight: our new video. Maybe like 6 people across the US have it. Mtv's (Empty-V) not sure they're gonna play it." During the video Maynard just watched the video too. The playlist was this: (probably not exactly right) 1)Hooker with a penis 2)stinkfist 3)Swamp Song 4)46+2 5)Sober 6)H 7)Eulogy 8)Opiate 9)nema The band was perfect on the songs. They were better than the damn albums. Some songs they extended a little w/ longer solo's and more drums. Danny Carey was amazing. Justin was excellent, though him and Adam just stood there and played, they still kicked ass. Adams guitar style was different than what i expected. He didnt seem to play any traditional power chords. He played everything on the "D" strings. Maynard was totally captivating. I hardly took my eyes off him during the entire set, which probably ran about an hour. I kinda lost all track of time. His movements were just mezmerising, i cant really explain what he did though. That day was the greatest in my life and im going to the July 16th date in pittsburg too! I almost pissed myself during the set. So there ya go. See You Auntie.

Review written by: Sean Mceleny (hqxh39c@prodigy.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 11:32:54 This was my 2nd time seeing them , the first was at the capital Balllroom in DC in December . I agree with all the other concert reveiws Ive read of this show so far so Im not going to repeat anything . Before Swamp song Maynard said something to the point of : alot of people think our music is about hate or violence but it's not , its about emotions , and anger is one of them . its about evolving from them .... thats really loosley quoted but to the point . The anema video was excellent , I hope they make an H video and release their videos on a VHS cassette . I took a freind who's into techno and rap who had never heard of Tool before , she was totally suprised and blown away by them .

Review written by: Steve Quinlan (quinlans@forbairt.ie) Review posted on: 07/03/97 11:12:20 Wow. What a show. I guess the second I saw Maynard wandering behind the stage with his face painted white and a fake ponytail attached to his head, I knew it was gonna be an entertaining show. When he finally came out (no pun intended) on stage he had some all too real breasts, platforms and some very tight shorts. His face was complete with eyeliner and lipstick. You know, I'm not gay, but after that show...well...ummm....nevermind ;) They opened with Hooker with a Penis. I was up front for the show, so I had to experience the little moshing weenies and their nonsense. But they calmed down soon enough allowing me to live out my dream of standing at a Tool concert screaming my head off. For the most part the crowd stayed still, especially when Maynard made a comment about the "sweaty shirtless little boys" all bumping into one another. Also, not many people seemed to sing along. They played (I forget the order) Stinkfist, Swamp Song, 46 & 2, H., Eulogy, Sober, Opiate, and Aenema. Stinkfist had an interesting bridge, the intro to Eulogy was recreated perfectly to my delight, and Opiate was complete with simulated rape at the end. I'm bitching that they didn't play Third Eye but what can ya do? Hopefully all you homophobes out in cyberspace who get to see Tool, will get freaked out at Maynard moving his hips not unlike a strip-dancer and pushing his breasts around (and I quote "You're just jealous"). Everyone else should laugh their ass off. Regarding the other bands, I didn't dig James, but I'm sure they played well. Korn got the biggest response of the whole show. I'm sure there's something to be said for bands who have nursery rhymes for lyrics - whatever. I liked Tricky. It was good music to chill to, and that girl singer is the bomb. I was kinda looking forward to seeing Snoop (just for the hell of it), but as soon as he started that misognist bullshit (everybody say "beeeyeecth"), he showed himself for the very mediocre talent that he is. I don't think he did ANYTHING original in that whole performance. Its amazing that people buy that shit. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stick around for Orbital, despite Maynard's advice. BUT, the warm-up dancers were...emm...hehe.... entertaining. Although I still think Maynard had the best ass of the festival. Did I think that or say that? I better think of a lie FAST!

Review written by: Jon Krauer (Senornacho@geocities.com) Review posted on: 07/03/97 10:36:55 Having been my first (and probably only) chance to see Tool -- ANYWHERE, I leapt at the chance to visit Lollapalooza when it came around near me. The other bands were excellent, and I really wanted to see all the main stage acts, but was busily counting down the minutes while they performed. Finally, after Snoop Doggy Dogg finished off his last round of explictives, the stage was prepared for Maynard & Co. BTW, this literally took 30 mins, so you can imangine my surprise to be daydreaming, and hear the croud roar as 4 tiny people entered from the side. I peered real closely, and sure enough, I could see Maynard.. wearing white face make-up, a mid-back ponytail (I assumed it was fake), a bra, and some really tight short-shorts, or maybe they were women's underwear. I couldn't tell, the huge screens really sucked from where we were sitting. At any rate, "shocked" was an understatment for me. All this time I thought he'd just come out, in regular ol' jeans and sing. I thought he didn't like negative attention. So after they walked out, they started in with "Hooker w/a Penis", "Stinkfist", "46 & 2", saying something between the songs. Damn these far away seats! I could feel the music from where I was sitting, but there was no room closer up to a better view. Next came "Eulogy", "Sober", "H.", and "Opiate" , each somg blaring like I knew it would. Some bands really fuck up the lyrics when they play live, but Maynard sang with excellent precision. After "Opiate", Maynard began saying something, and I only made out the part that they were filming a M2 music video, but MTV wasn't sure if they would play it.. the bastards, so I promptly screamed out "MTV SUCKS!" I was heard most of the way to the stage, but I guess Tool didn't hear. ;) So the last song they played was "nema" which is probably my favorite song on nima, other than "Third Eye". After that, they left as inconspicuous as they had entered, and left me with a wanting for more. (Sorry if this is confusing, I'm still buzzing after last night)

Review written by: Scott Klich (klich@hq.dna.mil) Review posted on: 07/03/97 09:52:27 I just saw them last night for the first time....kicked serious ass!! Maynards face paint was pretty wild, especially with all of the different color lights on him. I am definetly looking forward to seeing them again.

Review written by: Chris G, OGT, just kiddin (dgaarde@ix.netcom.com) Review posted on: 07/02/97 23:27:39 Tool was great!! My first time (parents wouldn't allow me to see them in october). When Maynard came out i felt chills. What a show! Maynard's get-up was a little different this time. His face was painted white and he had his ponytail wig-thing on, but no leather pants. No pants of any kind in fact! He was wearing sports underwear looking things, knee-high school girl socks, and black platform shoes. Justin was painted white, Adam shirtless, and Danny in his usual Killing Joke shirt. About the preformance..... what can I say, I was in shock. It kicked ass! Set list is as follows (in no order): Hooker, Stinkfist, 46&2, Sober, H (my personal favorite), Opiate, Eulogy, Swamp Song, Aenima. Before H Maynard said the following: loosely quoted "Do any of you have kids? They change your life don't they? You look at the world in a whole new way." then i think he said "That's what this song is about". Yes, they showed the elephant footage, but it was during H this time. They also showed the Aenima video and Maynard said basically the only people who would see it are the 6 people who have MTV2. An awesome performance! Almost peed myself! To give credit where it's due, Korn was great, Snoop sucked! Snoop's set consisted of telling the audience to yell different idiotic phrases. Being the idiots we are, we yelled back. TOOL rocked! If you have the chance to see them, don't miss it!