A Review of the Fall 1996 Tour

Date: November 19


From: Ayers777@aol.com Subject: TOOL review Detroit 11/19 Here's my review of the TOOL concert in Detroit, MI on Tuesday Nov.19th...@ the State Theater... Psychotica opened...i thought they sucked!!!! They were shitty, of course it could have just been i was anticipating TOOL...who knows??? Anyway they played for about 30-40 minutes...they were nothing special, but they had some crazy outfits and bazaar hair. The only thing i remember distinctly about them was that the lead singer dude said "This songs about eating pussy." It was the last song thank god. Anyway, they finally left the stage... Setup for TOOL had begun. One guy came on stage and said to us, "I don't know if you guys know or not, but TOOL has a new bassist, Jusitn, Anyway, it's Justin's birthday today so we were wondering if you could do us a favor. When Maynard introduces Justin we were hoping you all could sing Happy Birthday to him." (the crowd applauses and yells) ANyway, they finished setup...the stage had two maniquins on either side of the stage. There were two big screens in the back of the stage. THe lights went down and an animated picture of the cover of Aemina (white box with flame type things) appeared on both screens. It sounded like a volcanoe erupting. IT was a really cool beginning. Then Maynard came on, followed by the others. Maynard had the right half of his body painted blue. It looked like he was naked at first but then people realized he had boxers on that were a perfect match to the blue line. Adam had big blue polkadots on his back and Justin had the big dots all over him. They launched into Third Eye. Here's the setlist: (I'm almost positive this is right) Third Eye Stinkfist 46 & 2 Swamp Song Eulogy Prison Sex jimmy Pushit cold & ugly sober Opiate Aemina THe two screens in the back of the stage had sone cool stuff on it, also some disturbing stuff. There was some computer generated animation type stuff, one made designs with Gears...some other funky designs too. During 46 & 2, the screens showed the evolution of man from an ape to a man, also a walking skeleton. During pushit, there were elephants and camels fucking. ALso some Tribal, native naked men jumping up and down in slow motion. During Prison Sex and Sober, parts of the videos were shown, not the whole videos...just little pieces of them. During Aemina, there was this whips and chains type guy wrapping a leather strap around his neck and head, blood was dripping from his face and neck...i think something like "Crucified" was carved into his chest. There was a phrase with "crucified" in it. Then there was this woman, in black leather underwear, tied to a chair, she was screaming, also this spiral thingy and when it stopped moving it was a guy chomping his teeth. It ALL was pretty damn cool. I can't remember exactly when but Maynard introduced Justin and said, "DO me a favor...1, 2, 3..." then we sang happy birthday, Justin got a HUGE bouquet of flowers and took a swig of his beer. OKay these next few things...well ...they're things maynard said, BUT they are not completely accurate, it's what i remember so they may be off alittle...SORRY! Before Prison Sex, maynard said, "Let's try something, when i say 1, 2, 3, you reach deep within your soul and say YES!!!.....1, 2, 3..." After Prison Sex, he said something about, "...recognizing cycles of abuse...this next song is called jimmy." THen later on he said, "I'm gonna clear up something, (the lead singer) from Psychotica said i was from Detroit, I'm not, just clearing that up...I did live here up in a little town of Scotsville. I decided when i get enough money, i'm gonna buy the town and pave it over, then put a Taco Bell right in the middle with a basketball hoop in the back, THen i'm going to put parking meters as far as the eye can see." Before Opiate, Maynard said, "This is our last song...(the crowd is upset)...This is our last song, off of our first album..." (cheers) "It's called Opiate" THen he goes on to talk about the meaning of the of the song and talks about religion, i can't remember anything exact about that. So they play Opiate and right after pause for awhile still on stage and then Maynard says, "Okay, we'll do one more." THey went into Aemina. During the concert i was SO IMPRESSED with how the live concert sounds so much like the cd recordings. Adam basically just stood there, doing his thing, which he is AWESOME at. One highlight was definitely Swamp Song, i wasn't expecting to hear it, BUT i was so fucking excited to hear the first notes. It FUCKING ROCKED!!!!! Then the combination of Opiate and Aemina was AMAZING. IT was really intense and a perfect way to end the show. I don't really think Third Eye is a good opener, though. I was really disappointed not to hear Hooker with a Penis, i think that is an awesome song and i was pissed not to hear it, BUT i guess you can't hear everything, right??? well, i guess that's about it! -meredith-