A Review of the Fall 1996 Tour

Date: November 9


From: ryanph@mindspring.com Here is my review of the TOOL show in New Orleans on Sat. Nov. 9th Well, after a month of waiting, the great day arrived! We got to our seats towards the front of the first balcony. The Cows played. Of course they sucked. They weren't as bad as I was lead to believe, though. After EVERY SINGLE SONG they said,"we're the Cows"! How stupid. The crowd wasn't very rude to them, though, and Maynard said nothing about it. Anyway, about 20 minutes after the Cows were pulled offstage by the giant cane ;) , the lights went out. For about 10 minutes this creepy keyboard music played. Then the two big screens showed the animated cover (VERY cool!). Then this REALLY loud bass rumble shook the theater for a minute or so. It reminded me of an earthquake. Then TOOL took the stage. This time Maynard was half blue, half white. They broke into Third Eye. To say something negative, Third Eye is probably THE WORST song to open a show I've ever heard. Maybe that's why they did it. Maynard danced around very fluidly during the whole show, and seemed very into the performance. Here is the setlist, complete with what was on the screens during the songs: Third Eye- Green Fractals Stinkfist- Grey fractals, circle shrinking 46&2- REALLY COOL gears. Probably my favorite one Prison Sex- Clips of the video, but with weird colors. Eulogy- Ape walking becomes man walking. Ape bones dancing. jimmy- Hard to explain. Looks like fungus. Cold and Ugly- No Video at all. Pushit- Naked people jumping up and down, elephants copulating Sober- Loops of the video over and over Opiate- Circles (don't remember it too well) Ænema- Weird S&M stuff. Guy tying up his face, japanimation, etc... Some random notes: Stinkfist, Prison Sex, and Sober weren't as good live as I thought they'd be. However, jimmy, pushit, and Third Eye were better. He sang the extra part of Prison Sex (like on New Year's) Opiate was SO SLOW!!! But before they played it, he said something really funny: "Allright, this is the last song...(boos)...off our first album!" Before Ænema (which was the encore), he said: "Since you were SO persistant, we'll play one more. Never mind that it was already on the setlist!" I met the band after the show!!! Justin and Danny were really nice. I feel sorry for them, because noone recognized them at first! Adam seemed a little strung out, but that's understandable. I told him he is an awesome artist and he said thanks. Maynard was much shorter than I thought he was (not that there's anything wrong with that). When he came out, he gave a very sarcastic, "Oh boy!!!" But he wasn't a jerk or anything (like a certain famous Trent...) I guess just a little tired. I got their autographs, and all in all, it was a great show! BTW- it wasn't very hard to meet the band. I just found the tour bus and waited. Anyone who wants to meet them should try this!