A Review of the Fall 1996 Tour

Date: November 1


From: Todd Tidyman (ttidyman@swlink.net). Great Site!! Checked out Tool at Mesa Amphitheater on Nov. 1 and decided to go hunting for web pages on them. Yours Rules!! For what it's worth, thought I'd give you my spin on the concert. After having been smashed against the stage for the concert two years ago at Mesa, I decided to lay back and take in the music this time around. These boys are fine tuned!! Except for the flashes of creative intros you'd have thought you were listening to the CD. Pure!! Your Review #1 got the play list right. I was beside the mixing board where I could see a play list so I knew what was next. As with concert 2 years ago, no encore....sort of. They did do the huddle thing after Opiate and act like they were doing us a favor to play one more, but got to let it be known, Aenima (the last song) was on the play list. Creative criticism (like they care?): Would love to have heard a couple more from Undertow and Opiate. Maybe they are tired of them but fans aren't. Stretching the concert to two hours would have put the crowd over the edge. Maynard's voice seemed strong enough to handle it, though the tour is young. As it was, 1 1/2 hours made for a drained bunch (especially around the stage). Get some spot lighting hitting the band from the front!! Their lighting was as dark (blues & reds mostly backlit) as last time around making it tough to see them from more than about 50 feet away. Thanks for playing at Mesa. There is no better venue in the Phoenix area to see a concert. Hope to see them there again.