Lifestyle (Headline)
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  'Tool' Tight, Powerful, Dynamic

  October 22, 1996, 8:55 AM EDT

  Tool (Glass House, Pomona; 850 capacity; $16.50 )

  Reviewed Oct. 16, 1996
  By Troy J. Augusto

  HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - At the start of Tool's explosive show in Pomona --
the first chance for the L.A. hard-rock band to play material from its
recent No.  2-selling Aenima (Zoo) album -- singer Maynard Keenan warned
the sold-out crowd not to expect more than a sloppy performance from the
apparently rusty band. 

  But what the rowdy faithful got was a tight, powerful and dynamic show
that was close to the true spirit of rock 'n' roll music as any so-called
alternative band currently treading the boards. 

  Keenan, as always the focal point, revealed in eight-minute songs his
furious take on modern life. Often the songs began slowly and softly,
building through the singer's controlled pressure-release approach to
singing and screaming. 

  Such incendiary new songs as Aenema,cq which foretells California's
deserved submersion into the Pacific, and Eulogy,perhaps the most realized
of the band's material, revealed a band whose potential was only hinted at
on their 1993 breakthrough Undertow.  In fact, the eight new songs in the
set were steps above the four older tracks, songwriting depth and brazen
execution, though such catalog tunes as Sober and Prison Sex still hold
considerable sway over the band's followers. 

  Guitarist Adam Jones still relies on '70s hard-rock riffs for much of
his playing, turning strains of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd
and Rush into charged, biting chords. 

  The group's rhythm section, featuring new bassist Justin Chancellor,
propelled the group's post-metal stylings with a twisted, near-jazz
approach. 

  Band: Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor.
  Presented by Goldenvoice.

  Reuters/Variety

  c Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved.