A Review of the Fall 1996 Tour

Date: November 8


From: "Ermel" (ermel@ih2000.net) Subject: November 8, Houston Tool Review We arrived at the International Ballroom at about 8:30 with The Cows finishing up their quick set fortunately. We had came to get "TOOLED" and did we. It was a hot, in your face show, "TEXAS STYLE" with a crowd of about 2,000 I would say. After the opening band, Ambient music ala Pink Floyd began to oooze through the massive front speakers. The lights finally went down as the most thunderous bass began to penetrate the souls of the crowd which lead into "Stinkfist" with cool ass screen displays followed by "Forty-six and Two". Just like the previous shows Maynard was painted blue with Justin painted in white with a black T-shirt. Maynard was extremely talkative tonight saying that there bus had broke down and that they had walked from Dallas to do the show. Of course that was "Bullshit", but who cares. We were tooled some more with "Swamp Song", "Hooker with a Penis", "Jimmy", then the epic "Eulogy". For all you people trying to figure out who this song is about, tonight it was about "Pontious Pilot" or Christ for that matter. The band played along perfectly to the shades of white, pink, and violet crosses which graced the visuals. After that adventure, Maynard took a break to philosophize with the crowd saying coming to the point that we are all connected together as animals and that we should cherish the moment that we are all sharing because once the show is over it's time deal with the assholes of the world. Personally, I think Maynard should be teaching at a university. The band then broke into a very emotional "H" with bright orange lights behind the screens with trippy purple images which resembled naked humans, a most beautiful sight for the senses. Next was the extremely slow and heavy, "Cold and Ugly" which was the song they opened up with when I saw them at Lollapallooza '93. The slow part in that song was played so slow that it seemed to put the crowd into a slow-motion daze which was unbelievable. With more psychologizing from Maynard they broke into "Prison Sex" which near the end had an added twist with Maynard adding in a few words and Paul going crazy on the guitar with psychedelic rifts which cannot be described justifiably. We were then hammered with "Pushit" and then into the powerful "Opiate" with pink and "glow-stick" green circles highlighting the screens. Maynard, Justin, and Adam then to a break while Danny stayed on Drums and went crazy, I felt like I was in a dreamworld listening to John Bonham of Led Zeppelin for a moment. After about five minutes of soloing Adam and Justin appeared with glimpes of "Third eye" being played. At this point I didn't know what to expect but I knew it was about to "KILLER". About ten minutes later with the band "getting off" together Maynard appeared and they broke into "Sober". Tool then took a break while the crowd was going crazy. Maynard then reappeard and said that we had been such an "awesome" crowd that they would play "Aenema" for the final song. I must say, that the visuals that Adam comes up with are quite amazing. The visuals to this song went along great showing a blindfolded woman being cut by strings of somesort as she was wrapped to a chair. Her legs were then spread with one leg being wrapped behind her head as she bled to death and then you were then taken into her vagina while Adam jammed along to all this. All in all, it was one of the most AMAZING, KICKASS, KILLER FUCKING shows I had ever seen!!! I can't wait to see them again!