concert reviews firsthand, immediate, from the heart
06/29/2001
[all times Central Time; t.d.n is hosted in the midwest]




Review written by: davy (smashtheclock@hotmail.com)
Review posted on: 06/30/01 05:37:30

Yesterday was the second time I saw TOOL live ever, the first time being the first show of the European leg of the tour, the headline (with no supportband!) show in Tilburg (Holland) a month ago. I'm happy to have seen them at the start and at the end of the full circle (spiral). It gave me a very satisfying, special feeling. As the setting this time around was a festivalsite, the wait for TOOL was a long one, but as their spot on the Main Stage was ludicrously low (fourth band on a total of eight, whereas they headlined at Roskilde one day before. As well they should.) we all were in good form. TOOL folowed the act of Feeder, Queens of the Stone Age, and Deftones - Chino Moreno would give all of us the assignment to 'pay attention to TOOL'. The show got underway at 6.15 (p.m.), after the some crowd had already roared when Danny's drumkit was being rolled on stage. Mighty! The setting up of the stage was particulary funny to watch: the roadies preparing Maynards podium aped his stomping movements to see if the little stage on a stage would hold. At first it did'nt, so they had to provide it with new fundamental support. The show lasted little over an hour, with the folowing setlist: Grudge Stinkfist 46+2 Schism Sober Parabola Aenema Lateralus The sound was the best I heard all day (I suppose we owed that to all the TOOL-equipment that was being carried to the sound tower during the QOTSA-set), the only downer being that Maynard's voice could at times be hardly heard. Other than that, it was magic. I'm not going to elaborate much into the technical blabbering, as the show was very emotional to me. I brought along my thirteen year old brother to see TOOL, my relationship ended two weeks ago, and the day before the festival (which in turn was the day after my birthday), she left for a month-and-a-half's stay in Africa. So It took a lot to keep my mind to it all during the first bands. Only TOOL toke it away, and left me crying during Schism (which I had explained to my (ex-)girlfriend the night before the day before, as the video (!) turned up on MTV (!) when she was changing channels. Lateralus ended it in a blow: It was great to see the guys all coming up to the drums (even maynard) to start the song. The crowd was great. TOOL was magnificent. Maynard sent it home with the folowing advice: 'Whatever feeling this day has given you, be it a positive or a negative one, when you go home, transform it into something positive to live on/by dyring the next weeks. That's what I plan to do. thank you, Danny, Maynard, Justin, Adam thank you tool.

Review written by: Koen (kboulpaep@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 07/01/01 10:41:17

Friday was my first Tool concert. Like every good thing it ended too fast (as did my relation, which was very related to Tool, thats another story) The professionalism that was showed was something that I have never seen before in a concert. A friend of mine who has seen a lot of concerts more than I have agrees. (my English vocabulary isn't that good) The way which Adam was meditating with his guitar, I tried it yesterday, staring at the infinite, and PLAY, did't work. The tention that was build up during the show broke my nerves. I almost cried. I'd like to thank the girl for who I took a picture of Tool for letting me dream again. Can not for the next show. MJK said 'seen you soon' several times. xKoen

Review written by: jeffrey (digital_body@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 07/01/01 11:30:24

g'day... my first tool concert ever... i have bootlegs but nothing is aq quit overwhelming as tool live from the third row... moshpit was pretty heavy... no crowdsurfing allowed anymore... i'm not gonna type out the setlist as it's mentioned in an earlier post... for the geeks like me... maynard played guitar on schism.... well, playing... he played a few chords controlled with volume knob... i have a few pictures... not that great... they can be viewed... http://www.geocities.com/ineverdance/werchter.html there was a projectionscreen behind maynard... maynard was positioned next to the amps of adam.. and never stepped forward.. they didn't use the projectionscreen.... but used the big monitors next to the stage for visuals.. pieces of there videos + unknown images... mostly animations of pics you know from t-shirts or artwork of the band... they really enjoyed playing on friday... when leaving... justin put a well meant fist in the air... hopefully we'll see them again.. within a small decade :)... salut

Review written by: ineke (inekescrayen@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 07/01/01 18:56:20

A long time I was looking forward to this experience, and now that it's over I feel glad, 'cause the concert was really great, and a bit sad at the time, 'cause I know it will take some time to see Tool again. Last year I saw A Perfect Circle perform at Werchter, the same festival, and that really impressed me; to be honest, that was actually how I re-discovered Tool; I only knew some of their songs. And I'm really glad I did, because I think their music is fantastic. Sometimes I have a hard time explaining to friends why I think the music is so great, but that's another story. About the concert: I regret the set was so short, although I knew they only would play one hour. I was hoping the would play Ticks & Leeches, but they didn't. I also regret it was still light, I'd raher see them perform later in the evening, 'cause I think a band like Tool has to play when it's dark. I do not really know much about the technical aspects, I can only say the sound was great, just like the total musical performance of the band. I think it was just one long thrilling and emotional musical rush. When I closed my eyes, it all became even more intense. The two screans on the side of the stage, which normally shoot images of the concert and the crowd, showed videos of the songs. My brothers, who are not really Tool-fans, told me they were really flipping when they saw the images; they thought it was really weird stuff. I didn't really notice the videos, 'cause I was too concentrated on the music and unluckilly there were some big heads in the way. After the show I felt so OK, I felt great. It was so good to see you. I hope I will see you guys again soon, as you promised.

Review written by: Sander Radder (sander_radder@hotmail.com) Review posted on: 07/18/01

29-06-2001 WERCHTER FESTIVAL We were pretty late on the festival we waited one hour to get in. My friend radbouth body-painted me from my middle to my neck when we entered the festival and during the last songs from deftones a guy took a picture from the bodypainting and said he would send it up to toolshed Then the concert started i think the what realy amazed me were these moving images on the screen. They moved on the rhythm of the music During 46&2 I saw this bug with the face of a child that was crying later it became a sort of beetle. I also saw Adam's face with bright eyes and shaking his head on the rhythmn of the music. Also there were naked women swimming underwater in bright psychedelic colors during Schism they played the videoclip of the song I the beginning there were people dancing and jumping up[ and down but later they noticed that it was not some band and they were waching it mith open mouth the hole festival listened with their mouths open Maynard said that we should remmenber this if it was positive or negative and do something usefull with it and i sure did when i was home I wrote one song after another, all sound like tool and all dedicated to tool. I think the sound was not so good in the beginning couse the bass started clipping That is what happend if the amplifier can't handle the the loudness of the sound and you hear the sound go on and off verry quick it was adjusted in a few minutes Danny also had a problem couse there were some problems on the right site of his drumkit for the audience is that left. A guy runned up to him and helped him with his problem it was corrected in a second the rest of the concert it was the best i have ever seen I was body painted and i noticed that lots of people had a smear of my bodypaint when the concert was over i was almost clean I only had some few spots left. The last song was Lateralus and I got in sort of a trance couse this song realy gets to my soul When the concert was finished they throwed bottles of water in the crowd Danny came up to the crowd and threw his drumsticks away, one landed just a few feet next to me and I jumped on it. When I was standing up with the stick in my hand there was this belgium dude that said he wanted the drumstick. I told him to drop dead but he grasped the stick and he began pulling. A english guy came up to us and said to him that he thought it ment more to me that it does to him. The belgium dude ignored that and started pulling again. Than another guy came up and grabbed the other side of the stick. now they pulled together and I thought: I got it first the stick is mine. So I placed my elbow on the guys eye (with pretty much force) and i knocked him down. the other guy got scared and he let loose. I told them both to get lost and I walked away with a real Danny Carey drumstick. I also made some pictures theyare on http://muziek.clubs.nl/tool its in dutch so i hope ya can read it Thank you guys for the best expirience i ever had