Review written by: David Artis (JazzyDave1@aol.com) Review posted on: 08/30/98 21:10:09 Well, I have been an avid Tool fan for something like 6 years and this is the first time that I have witnessed the sense shocking performance. All I can say is this is what Tool is about. I went expecting to "hear" Tool, and left "feeling' it and 'se eing" it. This is not an auditory experience, but more of an sensory overload. The PA systen was pushed to its limits causing each beat to make my body shake. Nothing capped the anticipation better than when Maynard came out as the minister ready to lead us in his own sinister form of redemption. Nothing can compare with how he can get the crowd so fired up with his witty sarcasm. The events of the night are previuosly well documented. So I will tell you all that this was more than a concert, it was a revival!
Review written by: Tim (TimGlass57@aol.com) Review posted on: 08/29/98 19:09:15 Well, I must admit after seeing TOOL several times since 1994 this has to have been the best performance ever. I was almost hesitant to drive 7 1/2 hours to get to this show, but it was more than worth it. The band was in rare form...I haven't seen this much enthusiasm in Maynard in years. You could definitly tell the band has been on tour because their sound was absolutely perfect. This show had the best setlist and pre-show anticipation I have seen in a long long time! TOOL has come a long way and I'm glad to have been part of the ride so far! Live long and prosper! Tim
Review written by: Annette (eyethree@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 08/29/98 01:12:31 This has got to be the best week of my life. To be able to see Tool two nights back to back dosen't happen everyday. It's not over either I'm also going to San Jose to see them for the third time this week. I also saw them last summer in Atlanta during the Lalapaloza tour they were great then too. This night had to be the best because I actually met Justin and Adam. I was even given Maynard's hat. Yes I am keeping it. See you guys Sunday!
Review written by: Totally lucky Tool fan (AUDI5ooo@aol.com) Review posted on: 08/28/98 02:56:49 Tool,Tool,Tool. If you went to the concert, then you know that it rocked. If you did'nt, well then I am really sorry. Maybe you were grounded, or your girlfriend does'nt like Tool, or you had to work. Whatever the excuse is, it really must suck for you now. The reverend Maynard was attending the show tonight. "Can I get an AMEN." "Can I get a HALLELUIAH." And by the way, sorry about putting four of the same reviews on for the tuesday night show. My computer flipped on me. But, seeing To ol twice in two nights was awesome. And the setlist was a lot different. Out of the combined 20 songs played both nights, 16 of them were different. Of course, Aenima, Sober, Stinkfist, and Eulogy were played both nights. Third Eye was the best song pla yed on wednesday night. That song rocks, and Part of me, H and the Opiate/Flood combo rocked as well. Now, let me tell you all something. Waiting can be a bad thing. Waiting for food is bad. Waiting for parking space is bad. Waiting for girlfriend i s bad. Waiting to get into to Tool show is bad. Waiting for Tool after Tool show, not bad. Good. There were a lot of people waiting right after the concert, but only a few die hards stayed the entire time, long enough to see anyone. Now, the night bef ore, I was lucky enough to get Maynards autograph and Dannys on that nights setlist. On wednesday night, Maynard came out and went directly into the bus, and did'nt sign any autographs. After waiting for about two hours though, Justin(bass player) came out and sat down and talked to the 10 or so people that stuck around. It was awesome. And I asked Justin this question. "Hey Justin. What is the song Eulogy about. Is it about Jesus?" And he looked at me and said, " no, it's not about Jesus, it is ab out the old bass player, but i can't get into it right now." So, that cleared up a lot of controversy for me. Anyways, hoped that helped. And later, Adam came out and also signed autographs and talked for a few minutes. And to all of the guys that staye d around out there in the cold, one question. WAS IT WORTH IT??? Can I hear an AMEN.
Review written by: Thos (thoster@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 08/28/98 02:46:21 Well, this is the second time I've had the privelidge of seeing Tool. And yet again Maynard and the boys didn't let me down. (As an advance apology, I thought the melvins sucked) I won't go through a song by song review of my actions during the concert, t hat would be boring and repetive. All I can say is that the energy put into the show by Tool is superior to most other bands i see regularly(yes, they even compete with my beloved Type O Negative) Sober happened to be the highpoint of the evening though. The entire place was thumping, jumping up and down, slamming inrto each other, it was wonderful.(the extreme amounts of revealed female flesh wasn't a bad addition either. All and all, a phenominal show, and if you're reading this without having seen Tool . get off your ass and go get a ticket. It was a little bit of a dissapointment to hear people talking about the "new" song that they played(Opiate) but, idiots' money is just as good as the rest of us, so that's life. Tool is a live experiance that shoul d not be missed. The albums are but a poor attempt to create the feeling the band delivers live. Oh as a funny side note, I overheard some robots wehn maynard was introducing nema with a story about Danny's unfortunate encounter with a "flushing" say tha t they were cool...obviously these boys are going to grow up with some severe problems about what is pleasurable, but it goes to show, if you don't know what you're talking about, shut up
Review written by: Sean (GtarWiz@awwwsome.com) Review posted on: 08/27/98 19:10:59 Awesome show! I caught them last week in Reno as well, keeping with my motto: "the more Tool, the better" Tool is the kind of band that, even if they played the exact same songs every night, you'd end up with a different show. If you haven't seen them live..DO IT!!! You'll never listen to their cd's the same way again. All the other reviews pretty much describe what happened at the show, so I'm going to concentrate on what happened AFTER. The friends I came with didn't want to wait after, so they took off...stupid stupid people. After waiting around the tour bus for like 2 hrs. (during this time it's easy to pass time--eveyrone that bothered to wait that long was really cool to talk to)...Danny just strolled by us, and no one really noticed him (he looks so normal). I recognized him right away, but I froze when I saw him, as he is the man that defines rock drumming in the world today. But I recovered as he got on the bus enough to say "hey danny"...he looked over as he got in, but didn't stop. Stupid stupid me... Then a minute later Justin came out and sat down on this little step and signed autographs for us (there were like 12 to 15 of us left by this point..all the others gave up waiting long ago). Justin was awesome! He talked to us and listened, answered questions and treated us really cool. After he signed mine, he got up and started shaking hands as he was leaving and HE SHOOK MY FUCKING HAND!!! Right as I was shaking his hand I said "Thanks for a great show Justin!"...he looked me in the eye and said "See yah later man"...Justin rules!!! After that, we waited for another 20 minutes or so and then Adam came out. He had some stuff in his arms and was walking really fast to get on the bus..this one guy asked him for an autograph and he goes "I'll be right back, let just get this"...and he got on the bus. We thought for sure that he was gone for good, but 30 seconds later, he was back out! Adam is the man! He looked really tired and probably was in dire need of sleep, but he took the time to sign our stuff. One guy tried to ask him where Maynard was and he goes sarcastically "I don't know, I'm not married to him"...so thanks to Adam too! I never did see Maynard, but all in all a good show! I hope Annette keeps Maynard's hat given to her by one of the sound people...if not, she'd better give it to me. Tool Rules!!!
Review written by: Juan (tafkajjgg@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 08/27/98 16:31:23 Caught both shows. I'm so glad I did. To me, both shows were amazing. My preference was the second day's setlist which included (H., Third Eye, Opiate and No Quarter). Topped with the previous night's renditions of Pushit and You Lied I am left with a memory of two great nights of music. Quick tidbit about the Melvin's. They are grunge style originals (I read Kurt Cobain used to be one of their roadies). Having been around, they do what they want. So, those of you pissing and moaning when they slow things down and don't rock out.. guess what, that's the desired effect. It's probably a joke and you are it when you act like a baby that didn't get his candy. Anyway, some notable highlights for the second night (beyond the setlist). The Melvin's and some friends came out and camped on the front stage using bean bags to enjoy the Tool set. They would randomly walk on stage in front of the band to get drinks from the other side of the stage. At one point, Kevin (one of these friends) proceeded to jump rope during Third Eye with Maynard following the jumping motion. After another song, Maynard demanded a beer from Kevin. Once delivered, classic Maynard one-liner "No tip this time, BITCH". Before Opiate, Maynard dedicated the song to his "new wife" (any info on this anyone?) and some "French fuck" or something. A glorious set of shows I tell you.
Review written by: Ronnie (sssinc@sprintmail.com) Review posted on: 08/27/98 14:22:05 For those unable to attend the show last night, I honestly feel for them. It was a spectacular show. As we all know, Maynard's tendancies cause him to fluctuate in his images. Last night he showed as A Preacher, a Reverand, Bible and All. and he played a very belivable character as he told the crowd were his song Anema had come from, giving detailed explantions to his dream of distruction, having been awoken right before seeing the end of the dream. All in all it was a great show, the sound was great, the people loved him, all being able to understand the emotions of tool, just a little bit better....
Review written by: Michael (sporkboy3@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 08/27/98 11:57:11 I suppose when you go to a Tool show, there are things that are "expected." Driving, pounding guitar side-by-side with the phattest beats in the land >> and atop the pile of psychoacoustics.. . The Reverend (who looked nothing short of Luscious in his see-through Victoria's Secret bra). You can also expect a swirling mass of a crowd, each member of which knows all the words to all the songs (they covered all their bases with some all-time crowd pleasers: Stinkfist, H, Sober, nema, Flood >> as well as Opiate and Part of Me and No Quarter(!)). All of these things were delivered, of course, in glorious excess. There were however a few (small, but nonetheless noteworthy) events throughout the evening that made everything extra special: We learned the historical value of the "gap" between the band and the crowd at the front of the stage.. . apparently the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium is part of the trail where Moses lead his people to the Promised Land ("Where everyone has cable TV, and there's a Starbucks on every corner. Hallelujah."). We also learned that Danny (our favorite drummer) had an out-of-body experience (while receiving a high-colonic) and one of their songs (Flood, I believe) was based on it. My favorite extra tid-bit, however was the "video" for Hooker w/ a Penis played at the end. It depicted a woman on her hands and knees, exposing herself.. . but in the place of any sort of femininity there was instead a mouth super-imposed, singing the lyrics. This graphic piece of fun was vocally backed by a small group of little men dressed in tuxedos and with penises for heads. They looked kind of like aardvark-things, but they sang like angels. One of those things that you'll never see on Mtv's Top 20 countdown.. . Oh, and some guy named "Kevin" is Maynard's "bitch" >> he brings the Reverend beer and stuff (with NO tip). Could such an event be topped? Not bloody likely.
Review written by: David K. (rndtable@pacbell.net) Review posted on: 08/27/98 05:01:22 A stellar show with great sound fidelity. Tool does a great job of building pre-show anxiety...a feeling I don't always get. Very intimate venue. Reverend Maynard was in attendance. Above all, a truly awesome setlist: (almost in order) 1. Part of me 2. Eulogy 3. Stinkfist 4. Third Eye 5. H 6. Sober 7. No Quarter 8. Anema 9. Opiate 10. Flood *My only bit of commentary- The Melvins present a very innovative style of music. A lot of people like to disparage them. But I think that it is truly remarkable that The Melvins have earned the right to open for anyone without being a commercially endorsed and marketed band. They've actually earned it, without the aid of countless hours of radio time. They are a band with a true devotion to their roots. I commend their perseverance. If anything, they are pioneers. dk,sanjose
Review written by: Paymon & Michelle Ghamami (Flydian@ns.net) Review posted on: 08/27/98 03:08:43 For anyone who went to the August 25th show in Memorial and didn't go tonight i feel sorry for you. You missed one hella of a set including the opening song Part of me, and other songs such as H., Third Eye (my absoulte faviorite), No Quarters ( a Led Zeppelin cover ), Aenema, Bottom, Sober, Stinkfist, Eulogy, and the closing song was Opiate!!!!!!! Can you beat that???? Hell no. Presenting the audience with his evangelistic presente Maynard Lite up the stage with his Off white leasure suit and tacky tie with short white wig. Later taking his cloths and revealing his luscious breast and his black boxers. All the while The Melvins were sitting in blue bean bags that i long to take home the damn freaken stage crew wouldn't give me one. All I have left to say is that this show was 1000000 times better than last night and the Melvins they rose to the occasion and played a way better set than last night and we were proud to be there Front row Center Once again to witness it!!!!!! Tool Fans from the Begining to the End!!!! Paymon & Michelle PS Like i said in my other review Go Fucken By Opiate and Undertow Bitches!!!!!!!!!!!