Review written by: Master Reviewer Ben (?) Review posted on: 04/17/97 06:59:30 TOOL! There was a much more dedicated following of toolersat this gig compared to the one I went to at Bells beach two weeks before, although there was a large amount of teenie boppers with TOOL t-shirts that probably only knew Stinkfist and/or Sober. Anyways t he gig kicked ass. You probably already know what set they played but I must mention that opening with Third Eye was great surprise for me. At Bells they opened with Crawl Away. I dunno why. I thought it was an odd selection.
Review written by: Ben (barwncon) Review posted on: 04/17/97 03:55:20 They opened with third eye (surprise to me!) and continued with kick ass live versions of stinkfist, eulogy, jimmy, pushit, prison sex, sober, opiate, forty six and two and finished of with aenema. Rad!
Review written by: Gil (dbrener@ozemail.com.au) Review posted on: 04/15/97 08:42:14 most of what i was going to say has already been said, except: * maynard said: "we'd like to dedicate this set to joe (somebody) who just broke the world record for the amount of crossword puzzles completed in one day" i think joe was the sound technician or something cos MJK pointed offstage * the new bit in stinkfist was just bullshit * opiate was probably the most insane experience of the night *maynard said: (after talking about LA and L Ron Hubbard) "Adam went to take a personality test because he was bored. and when he was sitting in the room he had this feeling that it was haunted. just then the ghost of L Ron Hubbard flew right up Adam's ass. he had wind for about a week...and it sounded like this...HEY HEY HEY HEY * the feedback/drum solo before sober was kinda annoying * the new verse in prison sex rocked * i'm glad cos they played pushit but pissed cos they didn't play 4 degrees * eulogy was epic, i was about 2m from the stage with maynard going "don't you step out of line...don't you fucking lie" all up it was a mighty fine show and i wish i could go again. ps - to all the white trash losers in the crowd who think crowdsurfing is somehow a worthwile endeavour. get over it. i almost got knocked out by some chick's boot in the head and it really sucks trying to watch your favourite fucking band only to have to be constantly on the lookout for writhing sweaty bodies overhead. if you want to crowdsurf get a whole bunch of guys together at a mate's place and pass each other around. otherwise if you really feel the need to work out all that pent up homosexual energy just fuck off and go play rugby or something. fuckheads. pps - this concert rocked
Review written by: Mark Hosking (mhosking@comwiz.com.au) Review posted on: 04/14/97 11:43:37 TOOL IN MELBOURNE (SHOW DEDICATED TO JOE) THROUGHT HE EYES OF MARK HOSKING AND BOYD SYNNOTT. * Greatest Experience of my concert going career. * For some reason, I cannot listen to any other bands but TOOL. * When the lights went down, up came the projected displays of :- (marks impression) - Two televisions with radiation coming off them. (boyds impression) - Two iceblocks with melting steam coming off. * Justin hit a long sub-low bass note that shook the building. * A small man touched my inner thigh and I laughed. * (-) Ions (what a strange song to start with). * Thought I saw Mellissa Etheridge but it was only a beanie. * Lighting show was fantastic. Two projected images of mirrored film-clips with other graphics. * Third-Eye (now theres a song to start with). * The smell of cooking oil began to overwhelm me. * Stinkfist, 46+2, Prison Sex. The list goes on. * Pushit was the best of the night but they were all fantastic. * Somebody bit my leg, but their teeth marks were only crayon. * All the bits where you thought they would suffer live they sounded better than on the recordings. * The Australian named MJK46.2 (hairdryer microphone-thing) was in fine form once again. * Quite definately an experience. * I thought I heard someone say 'chickenwweasel' but it was only a little girl saying 'Bit of cheasel.' (it was caught in her teeth). * It seems Adam couldn't be bothered playing Aenima, so Maynard Thank you TOOL, very good show boys can't wait for the next album. Mark and Boyd
Review written by: MATT (coomsale@pop.netspace.net.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 23:34:06 I got to festival hall at about 8:10 and took my shithouse seat. The support band was pretty crappy and I was glad when they finished. Myself anlong with mates Jesse and matt scrambled over seats and over people to get ourselves to the front of the resrved seating area. At about 9:10we heard the rumbling of (-)ions. The fellas came out, maynard last, painted blue, with white boxer shorts and awesome looking orange spots on his body. They then started with Third eye, all 15 minutes of it which had me absolutely mesmerised. Justins horns looked unreal and Adam looked totaly focused. Danny had a drum kit that was just massive. Stinkfist was great and 46 and 2 along with pushit and third eye were probably the best songs of the night Prison sex was not as good as i thought it would be. They played Euology next and the special voice effects with the hairdryer sounded sensational. Jimmy was next and Maynard mentioned this was about breking the cycles which he mentioned before Prison sex. As mentioned before, Pushit went off and this is when I made my dash for the mosh pit. Over the fence, hit the ground running, shrugged off a security guard and along with my mate Jess, we litarally sprinted away from the guards towards the pit. The 10 minute intro to sober sounded great, as was sober. Seeing half the dick heads only knew the words to sober the singing was loud. Before Opiate, Maynard announced, "this is the last song" "Boooooo"(crowd)"off our first e.p"(maynard) Opiate was okay but I knew they could not leave such a note. The encore was Aenima which was unreal. Before Aenima Manard told us about L.A. and Ron L Hubbard's ghost being sucked up Justin's ass. t After Aenima they left us, turned the lights on and played the itchy and scratchy theme over the speakers. I forgot to mention the shit hot giant projector screens behind the band which had great clips and 3d images on them. To anyone who has not seen tool live - You have to. Here is the play list- 1.(-)ions 2.Third eye 3.Stinkfist 4.46 and 2 5.Prison Sex 6.Euology 7.Jimmy 8.Pushit(when i got into genral admin.) 9.Sober(with 10 min. intro) 10.Opiate 11.Aenima
Review written by: FIONA LAUGHTON (ilaughto@esc.schnet.edu.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 22:33:06 TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL TOOL I'm sure you've already seen the set list for this concert...but anyway... (-) IONS TURD EYE STINKFIST 46 & 2 PRISON SEX EULOGY JIMMY PUSHIT SOBER OPIATE (this is the last song...) AENIMA Wow... My friends and I were directed to our shitty side view seats. General Admission tickets had sold out in a matter of minutes. But...*grin*..Being Festival Hall, there is only one way down the front and that is to sneak past the dicks in the flouro yellow t-shirts... We were well and truly in a good position before Shihad started their set. Shihad came on...they seemed pretty kewl... Tried hard to get the crowd up and dancing.. But everyone was really hanging out for TOOL.. AFTER about a half hour wait, some german/mumblings/weird/trance thing started...Cool... After another 10 minutes of that, TOOL finally began... :) Rather than bore you with song by song details, here were some of my personal highlights and triumphs... 46 & 2 = ABSOLUTE PERFECTION Prison Sex got the crowd singing.... "Shit, blood and cum on my hands" stinkfist = really heavy, possibly played in a lower key.. Forgot to yell chicken weasel...Damn.... Eulogy- I crowd surfed during the "You claim all this time" bit and was blown away..I didn't make it to the barrier and got dumped, hard on my back..*grin*..THANX to all who picked me up!! JIMMY & PUSHIT = Both went off!! Pleasing to see everyone actually knew OPIATE... SOBER was a truly magical moment.. Once again I was up and away..surfing my way to the front...Just as MJK launched in the "trust me, trust me.." and then chorus...I was climbing over the barrier NO MORE THAN A METRE AWAY FROM MJK!! I reached my hands out to him... I am still totally blown away... AENIMA rocked HARD.... I know I said I wasn't going to give a song by song report, but I couldnt help myself...*smile* Great night...great smoke..great crowd...great music...great band... (Oh yeah to all the people who bought $30 t-shirts - "Ha-ha".. I got mine outside on Dudley Street for $10. It had Australian Tour 1997 and a list of all the cities.... Also I got a very kewl TOOL beanie for $10!!! Yay!!)
Review written by: Simon Levesque (eml@alphalink.com.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 15:34:38 April 12th, 1997 Melbourne, Australia Festival Hall 1. Third Eye 2. Stinkfist 3. 46 and Two 4. Prison Sex 5. Eulogy 6. Jimmy 7. Pushit 8. Sober (with a Looooooooong intro) 9. Opiate -----ENCORE--- 10. Aenima Well, the venue sure was packed, the only Melbourne show; there were people walking up and down the street looking for tickets. I got in pretty early and went straight to the front of the crowd. Shihad opened the show up; playing a fast and loud set: not a bad band at all. At 9:00 the roadie came out and stuck up the setlists. As I was on the barrier, I had a perfect reversed view of the list. All of the songs had the word Joe used; Stink Joe, Joeber, Joepiate, Joey, Prison Joe, etc. - wierd. The band entered at 9:15. Maynard was painted blue with red spots; Justin had his horns again and was painted red, Adam had black pants and no shirt, and I couldn't see Adam well. Third Eye was not shortened as it was at Torquay, we were treated to 15 whole minutes: with crowd surfers all the way (idiots). The band went straight into Stinkfist, which was really heavy in terms of guitar. Chickenweasel was yelled by everyone, why I don't know. In fact, some people decided it would be a good idea to yell it out after EVERY song, hehehe. 46 and 2 was great. Perfect mix of bass and vocals. The crowd, at this point (even though the crowd surfers were shitting me) seemed to know their lyrics. In fact, it was one of the best crowds I have seen in a while; they were loud and they knew the words (probably due to the fact that all of the teenyboppers were at home sulking because they didn't buy tickets in Feb. when I did, hehehe ) Before Prison Sex started, Maynard introduced it as a love song; "Melbourne, we have a love song now." Eulogy was the hilight of the night. As I was on the barrier, I could see his little hairdryer device he used to make the intro sounds. Before Jimmy started, Maynard told the crowd that "Prison sex is about the cycles of abuse and recognising them. This is about living throught it." Before Pushit began, a guy started yelling abuse at a security guard, for no reason I should mention, the security guards were great. Maynard heard this and said that "anger is constrctive, it is a feeling. Hate is not." - or something to that nature. Pushit really tired me out. Next up was Sober, with the longest fucking intro I have ever heard, almost (i said almost!) tedious. Danny had vibrators, toys, and other wierd things to make feedback. It was at this point that Maynard sat down and started drawing on the stage, then he meditated. I looked over and Justin was staring at me, I looked at him and he growled at me; really freaky as he looked like the fuckin devil! Opiate was pretty average, but I enjoyed it thoroughly as Maynard said it was "their last song". The crowd surfers decided to have their fun and they all went over the barrier, then left. Ahhhh, but they decided an encore was needed, hehehe. Maynard told of LA and a guy called Ron J Hubbard; an abvious intro. Aenima was really heavy, I couldn't see much though as I was about to pass out from exhaustion. Wow, what a great show OH yeah, there was a woman filming the whole show, professionally. She was filming on stage, in front of the crowd, everyhere. Looks like there will be a broadcast of it. Cool...
Review written by: Jill MacLean (jaymax@netlink.com.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 15:31:38 Well the day started off with me going to billy hydes to meet Danny at an instore... which was well..CANCELLED!... wasn't their fault though. Apparently some Indian airline went on strike and it mucked up all the other flights. BUT IT DIDN'T MATTER!! coz the guys at billy hydes felt so sorry for me that they gave me a free 'Pearl' T-shirt (good for sleeping in) and they told me where they were staying!! so off i went to the hilton hotel. (and yes i felt like the biggest idiot). and i met them all. maynard isn't a guy you would try and converse with. justin and danny were so freindly and adam was really nice but he was on his way to a football game (Richmond vs Footscray). (Jason - i said hi to justin for you and he said hi back... i forgot to say it to danny though...sorry!) so now i've got my stinkfist 12" and undertow cd signed!! anyway i went straight to festival hall from the hilton. the support band 'Shihad' from New Zealand were really good. but you don't need to know bout them. then after a very long wait the curtains at the back were pulled up and the thing from the stinkfist video (on the TV) was projected on 2 massive screens. They opened with Third Eye. i managed to get the official setlist.. this is what it said... TURD JOE STINKJOE 40-SHIT & JOE (B) PRISON JOE (B) EU-LO-JOE JOEY JOESHIT JOEBER JOEPIATE JOAENIMA the reason for the 'joes' is that they dedicated the show to a guy called you guessed it.. joe (can't remember his last name). maynard said that he broke the world record for doing cross word puzzles... can't remember exactly what he said... he said some other really funny stuff but i forgot... he talked quite alot actually... anyway, the set was obviously very slow to what's recorded. Pushit was definatly the best and third eye (turdjoe) was absolutley unbelievable. also before they played sober, adam and danny did their usual noisescape experimental thing in which adam used his epilady. i really love that thing. by the way.. before prison sex maynard said (as usual) "this next song's a love song" followed by "it's for Joe" what's funny is that i thought he said 'jill' for a couple of seconds (which is me) it fucking sounded like jill, AND i met him that same day.. and others thought it did too. anyway i know he didn't say that.. and yes laugh coz it is pretty funny. ha ha. Maynard was painted all blue with these dots painited on him which glowed... justin i think was painted orange. it's hard to tell with the lights. ummmmmm after a while they all took off their instumets and went in the middle of the stage and just had a chat for a while. it was pretty funny. before opiate maynard said "this song's our last song..........off our first album" every was singing along...funny how no one knew the words in april 1995. after stinkfist i yelled out chicken weasel at the top of my lungs about 3 times when it was quiet but i didn't hear anyone else do it except for my freind matt. the people next to me thought i was crazy. oh well. i can't really think of anything else really... overall the show was just incrediable. Tool are the most intense band ever. also read my Offshore review coz that has more detail (i think). it's pretty sad that this is the last time i'll be seeing them until a next tour.. but that either won't happen or it will be in a very loooong time.
Review written by: Greg Dunbar (greg@cbl.com.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 15:28:07 Wow what an experience! Tool were absoloutely amazing last night, it's hard to imagine exactly what their shows are like without actually going to one. Their set-list was fairly standard I think, although Crawl Away or 4 degrees might have been cool additions. Only 2 songs from Undertow seemed strange, the list was totally Aenima dominated. Shihad came out at about 8:00, I thought that they were pretty average, just a normal sort of rock band. I think they seemed to play a bit long, I think it would have been close to 9 or 10 songs. When they finished up we heard this weird stuff over the speakers, German speaking and electric rumbling. I was looking around for those video screens I'd heard about, and thought, oh shit why does Melbourne be the only place not to have them, but just before Tool started they came down from the ceiling and the Aenima smokebox was displayed. This drew large cheers from the crowd! Maynard had the blue body paint with fluoro spots, Justin had the red paint, and Adam and Danny were just themselves. Adam was really cool, he looked so focussed, his hair in his face the whole time while his fingers were dancing all over the fret board. Danny's drumkit was just massive! And man can he play! Not a lot of chickenweaselling, just a few people. Before the show though this guy was talking to us, and asking us about what OGT means and what 4 degrees means. Of course I knew, he was trying to show off his knowledge. I guess that he's been on the toolshed.down.net. If you are reading this, then hi mate! Well, it was just awesome, what can I say. If you haven't seen them yet, then do it! Set List: Third Eye Stinkfist 46 & 2 Prison Sex Eulogy jimmy Pushit Sober Opiate Aenema
Review written by: Dan Feldman (danf@c031.aone.net.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 15:26:17 This was the second Tool concert I'd seen on the tour, and although the visuals and songs were spectacular, I'd have to say that the crowd wrecked this 'un. Before we go a bit more in depth, heres the setlist (methinks). (-)Ions Third Eye Stinkfist Forty-Six & 2 Prison Sex Eulogy Jimmy Sober Pushit Opiate Aenema Maynard was all blue for this effort, with the glowing red dots positioned as have been in other concerts. Justin was all red. The others were normal -- but by the end of the concert, Maynard's lovely Tooly boxers were decidedly blue (it was incredibly hot in the auditorium). He'll need a new pair :). I'd like to take the time to say that the security on the Australian Tour has been kinda dodgy -- it was desperately hot for the moshers and no water or air conditioning was provided, while the fuckhead security guys behind the barrier sipped their 6 bottles each. I have no sympathy for the cowdsurfers, however. After Eulogy, Maynard said, "Hello Melbourne...for those of you who think this is about hate and violence, it's not. It may be about anger, because anger is a consturctive emotion. It's *definitely* about unity (here he holds a single finger out to the crowd) but it's not about hate and violence." Silence ensued. So I yelled out "Yeah so fuck off crowdsurfers," and got some applause, which was appreciated :). Mynard continued, "A couple of songs back we played a song called Prison Sex (applause, cheers). That song is about the cycles of abuse. And when you recognise the cycles of abuse, you can begin to repair the damage, by recognising what was the first step. You can begin to move forward (or something) and that's what this song is about..." (They play jimmy). That was about the only thing Maynard said all night -- less talkative than in Torquay. There were many Chickenweasels after Stinkfist -- probably 8 or 10. Some came from our group, because we met up with (and bought tickets from) a couple of online Tool fans (Thanks Simon and Jordan). There was the usual 10-minute intro before Sober, with Maynard again getting out his coloured markers and drawing something on the stage before meditating. Pushit was IMO the best song of the night -- played beautifully, with actal moshing, not just 1000 people looking behind them to avoid surfers. It was a great atmosphere for this one, and I'm not biased because of the fact it's my favourite song :). Opiate was shithouse because of all the crowdsurfers, so was Aenema...there were seriously annoying people just elbowing others in the moshpit, I got winded as a result and one guy had his nose broken -- by the same guy (fat so-called Toolfan bastard, you know who you are...) but the majority of the show was pretty classy. All in all, I'd like to say to people going to concerts, please don't crowdsurf-- it's not in the spirit of the music. And for those who are getting killed by surfers, here's a tip...moshing is like life...go with the flow, don't try and move in an opposite direction, and you can forget about the unfortunate incidents. Thank you, Tool, for the Australian band tour of a lifetime... Dan
Review written by: Nat (reel@netspace.net.au) Review posted on: 04/13/97 15:23:12 The support band ,Shihad, were one of the greatest support bands ever. They sounded heaps like Helmet. They had 2 really good songs but I don't know what they were called. Shihad will be big, just wait. My prediction for the year. At about 9:15 (-)Ions started playing and the crowd started screaming. Maynard walked on last. He was painted blue with spots but I don't know what color they were. When they started Third Eye everyone went completely mental. Maynard sounded different from when I saw Tool 2 years ago. His voice was much more nasal. Stinkfist was a wicked mosh. Eulogy was sick. Prison Sex wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Forty Six & 2 was really good until I crowd surfed (because I'm only 15 and I'm really light) I got chucked onto the top of some guys head and the middle of my spine was on the top of his head and the guy in front of him was pulling my legs down and the guy behind him was pulling my torso down. That hurt and completely stuffed up my back. When Maynard said something about "Prison Sex being about somehting" he said "but this song is about healing after that." Then they played Jimmy (my favourite). I was so surprised and glad until people started moshing really hard. I mean c'mon Jimmy isn't about mosh it's about waving around and just movin' your booty. Then they played Pushit and everyone moshed. Why mosh to Pushit? That's even less mosh than Jimmy! So then they palyed Opiate and everyone went crazy. After Opiate I ran to get a drink because I knew we had to wait. When I came back and got into the crowd Maynard said "one more" and every went "YEAH!" Then he said somehting about "the ghost of L. Ron Hubbard flying up someones butt and that he had gas for a week and it sounded like this HEY HEY HEY" then they started nema. It was a wicked concert and I still can't hear. It was definitely the best ever. I think the setlist was something like this: THIRD EYE STINKFIST EULOGY FORTY SIX & 2 PRISON SEX (STUPIDLY LONG DRUM SOLO) JIMMY PUSHIT SOBER OPIATE NEMA It went for about 2 hours. That's pretty long for I've just noticed. I bought the white T-shirt with TOOL written in an Oval and that person on the back. Can anyone tell me what's going on with the person on the back? I can't tell what's going on. Long live Tool!