the tool page

toolshed.down.net

watch the weather change

This site is no longer being updated. See here for details. Follow me here and here for updates. Thank you for 22 great years.

ARTICLES

select a year

The Tool Page: An Article

Publication: Rolling Stone Magazine (Aus)

Date: October, 2001

Transcribed by
Simone (maynard_god@hotmail.com)


  page: 97
 title: Performance: Tool's Big Art
author: Robyn Doreian

Rod Laver Arena
July 23rd, 2001
Melbourne


From the moment the Los Angeles quartet stepped out onto 
the stage - completed by a six foot vidoeo screen behind 
vocalist Maynard James Keenan and a much larger one 
above drummer Danny Carey - it became apparent that this 
was not a gig, but a performance. As the screens illuminated 
Louis Bunel-styled surrealist images of an eye pressed 
against a keyhole, the band launched into the twisted riffs 
of "The Grudge". Keenan cut a commanding military-style, 
figure in a padded boiler suit, with his face adorned by a thick 
black painted stripe. Crouched over, he spent a great deal of 
the evening lurching and jerking in time to the muscular riffs 
of guitarist/artistic director Adam Jones, whose on-screen 
videos consisted of nudity, mutated humans, writhing larvae 
and water scenes - guaranteed to give Sigmund Freud (bless 
his sole) a field day.


Working their way through a selection of older material from 
1996's Aenima ("Stinkfist", "Fourty-six&2", "Pushit") 
plus "Prison Sex" from their 1993 debut, Undertow, the 
cerebral battering took a breather via an intermission during 
which the cinematic triumph for "Schism" was shown. 
Returning to the raised platform behind Jones, Keenan 
reappered in black, Axl Rose-styled, figure-hugging shorts. 
Proceeding with the remainder of the set -
 "Sober", "Parabola", "Aenima" and "Opiate" -  the fearsome 
foursome closed tonight's soiree with the 
chugging "Lateralus". Rather than a case of "fuck art let's 
dance", tonight was very much a case of "fuck everything, 
let's do art". At the conclusion of "Opiate", Keenan 
stated: "Art saves lives". Some two hours later, the 
combination of Tool's superior musicianship and highly 
creative visuals had just saved mine.


Posted to t.d.n: 09/10/01 08:00:38