Tool at OzzFest 1998 Tour Reviews

Date: 0714


Review written by: Curt (Krrackbaby@aol.com) Review posted on: 07/19/98 16:42:30 Yes, the lengths of which a Tool fan will go to see them were truly tested that day in Akron. The weather was scorching hot, no beer, and the scenery was marked that day by shirt-less folks who refuse to do sit-ups. The bands up until Tool,(aside from M otorhead) were mostly a bad mix of throw-aways, and confused, angry jokers that made you wonder what they'd sound like if Korn never existed. One band in particular,Limp Bizkut hit the stage ranting about "fags", and then played a George Micheal song. As a matter of fact, they played quite a bit of other band's songs by the time they were finished. If they do this Ozz-thing next year I certai nly hope they don't book another homo-phobic cover band for a mainstage act. Finally at eight-o-clock Tool hit the stage, and as you've already read, the introductions were hilarious. Sweat erupted from the HUGE speakers, and Rev. Maynard's disjointed dancing began. I saw them once before, but it wasn't this close at all. Only s even songs to delight in, but it was well worth wading through the sweaty hillbillies in the july heat all day. Gonna go catch the show on the 22nd in Toledo, and I can't wait!

Review written by: Master Reviewer (sinister@neo.lrun.com) Review posted on: 07/18/98 17:11:27 Let me start off by saying tool kicked ass and stole the show! Maynard Keenan came out dressed as a tv evangalist(pitty the spelling) and strip teased during Sweat down to his boxers. It was an awsome concert and the spear in the background w/ the technocolor designs captivated me in the current state I was in. I intend to see them every chance I get in the future. TOOL FUCKING RULES

Review written by: Mike Callahan (dohnjoe586) Review posted on: 07/17/98 23:10:22 since i first heard opiate i knew there was something about tool that was simply captivating. The video I saw of them in Philly back in 92 showed me the men that make the music for the first time--it was then I realized what makes them captivating. Their sense of reality is so true and intense that the only people who can't see it, are those who never bothered to look. I had never actually bought a tool Cd until I saw the video for "Stinkfist" on mtv. You see, I never needed to get the CD because my frien ds had them, and I was always hanging out with them. But there was something about that song, no, there was everything about that song....I was now an official Tool fan. After seeing them at Lollapalooza I had lessened my time listening to Tool because I didn't want to ever get sick of them. I was slightly confused about how excited I was going to be when they stepped onstage for Ozz-fest--that is, until they stepped onst age... THE OUTFIT MATCHED THE SKY: My friend and I had been guestioning what song they would open up with. They took the stage as we watched from halfway across the stadium, and gave "Sweat" as an answer. Tired, hot, and dehydrated, we sat in awe of the myth as they began to lambaste the a udience that had been so low the majority of the day. Shortly after they started into "Stinkfist" I found myself rushing my girlfriend down the steps of the stadium as she made her award winning attempt to put shoes on while running. Being short has its advantages. I was definitely closer to Tool, but I was no where near seeing them. Being closer has its advantages. Being that I couldn't see, I chose to stop fighting for a place to see and just listen. The sounds were so loud and so exact. It was like me n with the power of a lions roar, along with the ability to share it. We stepped on toes and between bellies and behinds until we found ourselves right next to the left speaker. I was disappointed that I couldn't see the skins, but Maynard is always a ple asure to watch. Jones stood in place the entire show. A song from Aenima, two songs from Undertow, a song from Opiate, a song from Aenima, and a last from Undertow, and it was over. I won't say the set couldn't have been longer, but it couldn't have been better. Tool kicks ass.

Review written by: Mike Galati (3rdeye@wirefire.com) Review posted on: 07/16/98 18:51:30 The show was awesome. Actually, from about noon - 6, i was pretty bored. I liked Coal Chamber and Limp Bizkit from their cds, but really couldn't get into them because i was so tired from lack of sleep the night before. As soon as Limp Bizkit was done, i went to the second stage to catch my 2nd fave band (falling VERY close behind Tool), System of a Down. They ruled live. I really cannot wait to see them in their -OWN- concert (Tool also, have only seen them at festivals). I even got to meet and talk with the band...they signed my shirt too. Very cool guys, BE SURE TO CATCH THEIR SET! Next I made my way back over to the main stage to find (as someone else said) the crowd parted. I really had no idea what was wrong, but I ended up walking right up through the gap to about 20 feet from the stage, where I watched the show. Though others described what Maynard was wearing, no one really got into how he "introduced the crew": first, there was 'Danny "Lion Fucker" Carey' then there was 'Reverend Maynard' then there was Justin...'who is unfortunately a Jew' then there was 'Adam, the right hand of Eve. The original sinner. Reverand Adam Jones' The set was amazing. Maynard seemed much more happy to be playing this time than the last I saw them (7/20/97- my review is under the name "urban donkey"). Though the set was somewhat short, it WAS great. Totally made my day. Once Tool was over, I was ready to go home, but fortunately I -did- stay for Ozzy. Not so much for him (i really don't care much for him) but for all of the chicks who decided that they'd like to show the Ozzman their tits.

Review written by: Twisted23 (Twisted23@juno.com) Review posted on: 07/16/98 11:57:52 I drove all the way from buffalo new york to "slow-hio" to praise the words of rev. Maynard. His words have brought me back from the brink, and i can honestly say rev. Maynard has healed my tourtured soul. The reason i call it "slow-hio" is because everyone at the show was pretty lame. Everyone was so quiet you could actually hear the crickets chirping. Being from buffalo, i guess our scene here is more hard core, and concerts here are better people..the crowd riders don't kick you in the face,when you fall they help you up,the people are downright rowdy from the moment they enter the doors. Don't people in slowhio know of the greatness of LIMP BIZKIT? I thought i would lose my mind during their set if it wasn't for these little mamma's boy morons complaining the whole time..like..'oh, man, these guys suck, when's megadeth coming out..wah wah wah..well here's a clue for you morons who just don't get it, limp bizkit is young and angry which is what makes them so entertaining. Megadeth used to be young and angry,like, in the EIGHTIES! Who wants to listen to dave mustaine whine about his geriatric problems between hits of his oxygen mask and the over flowing of his adult diapers? wah wah wah! TOOL WAS AMAZING!! They were the only reason we drove from buffalo. Maynards energy just enveloped the entire stadium and put me into a trace. swaying back and forth to the beauty of the music that is tool was worth the 4 hour drive in a hot smelly car. His words penetrated my soul from the beginning. Sweat was a good start, considering it's off an album that many of the clueless people in the crowd never even heard of. but of corse by the time they kicked in to sober, most people realized that it was a song that is played on the radio, so the cowd started to pick up.They introed SWAMP SONG and i thought for sure i was gonna lose my fucking mind. Being that Maynard was just teasing me, they went into eulogy instead, a good trade, but i was really hoping to hear..I HOPE IT SUCKS YOU DOWN, FUCKER! needless to say by the end of their set i was in tears.Maynard's strip tease into his scooby doo boxers, the idea of spanking him because he's been a naughty boy, the bass that you could feel down in your toenails, singing every word of every song back to him and sensing that he could feel me like i felt him, was haertbreakingly beautiful. he's all the god i need, not that i worship him, but he holds my deepest admiration for being beautiful..inside and out..I LOVE TOOL...SEE YA IN D.C.!! For anyone that was at the show, i'm the girl with the large sun tattoed on the back of my head, you may have seen me there. Sorry if i offended anyone from slow-hio that doesn't fit what i described. I did see alot of nice ink work and piercings at the show, that was unexpected. come see a show in buffalo sometime if you enjoy the crowds energy just as much as the show itself, it makes a world of difference.

Review written by: Heather (maleboglia@sprynet.com) Review posted on: 07/16/98 01:49:57 Security came into the impatiently waiting Tool crowd, and like Moses himself parted the crowd. The wait was so long because there was a disconnected cable under the carpet. When the man tried to cut the carpet open to get to the cable, he sliced his finger open with his knife. A fan in the crowd told the man to let ozzy suk on his finger, and the man said "no, he'll bite it off." I don't know, just a story i guess, I'm glad they parted the crowd I got a hell of alot closer. Hey Maynard, if you happen to read the reviews, I was the girl sittin on some shoulders singing sober to you, YOU ROCK REVEREND MAYNARD, KEEP SPREADIN THE WORD..in your scooby undies preferably.

Review written by: dan (underadeadohiosky@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 07/16/98 00:04:09 well the first thing i would like to say is that that was my shoe that was thrown at maynard and i was pissed because some asshole stole it from me when i was surfing but anyways tool kicked so much ass this was my first time seeing them and i loved it so much the way he acted was just marvelous megadeth played to long and there needed to be more time for tool i left after tool (no disrespect for ozzy but to much for me) and one more thing "justin is a jew"

Review written by: B (blaze@worldnetoh.com) Review posted on: 07/15/98 23:42:41 Hot, baked like a fucking potato. No beer being served. Ice Water is $1.50. They were making so much money off the rapid dehydration of others. Well enough about the weather. Stage hopped from 1st to 2nd stage all day looking for talent. Incubus played early but I missed em..They were out at like 12:30. Life of Agony, Snot, Sevendust, SoulFly, Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit, Megadeth played. Nothing remarkable..Limp Bizkit did some funny shit..covered House of Pain...crowd was jumpin. I thought Megadeth was kind of weak. Finally Tool came out. Maynard did his Reverend business, talked about somethin or other. Introduced band..Opened with sweat. They played excellent as usual with Maynard doing his snake-like dances of emptiness. A bunch of jimmys moshed to jimmy under the dead Ohio sky. I heard Maynard say something like "Eulogy instead of Pushit, I can use my megaphones." Overall performance was spectacular but seemed short. Maybe the other bands just seemed so long,or maybe Tool just intranced me. Either way, can't wait to see em next time. Oh yeah 2 more things. They were serving ORANGE water...And some lady passed out and pissed on everyone and everything she came into contact with. FINNE

Review written by: thanatos (thanatos@flashemail.com) Review posted on: 07/15/98 18:16:34 It was very hot. Not like one of those bright happy sunny summer days, but more like the dead Ohio sky, that burns your skin without you even noticing. I arrived at noon, to find out that Tool would not be on until 8pm. This was my first time seeing them live, which made the wait even more unbearable. The rest of the bands there were pretty good, but I won't waste any space with details. I waded into the crowd for Megadeth, who put on a decent show. Although I must say their new material doesn't quite have the energy as their old stuff. Dave was great as usual tho'. I stayed up in front while the were changing the set for Tool. That's when it started to get unbearable. The security guys would spray the crowd every 10 minutes with water, but it was still hellish. Right before the came on I saw a kid about 3 years old wearing a Tool hat, come out an sit by the side of the stage, was it Devo? Tool came on and everyone decided they had to get closer. So while being slowly crushed to death, I basked in the glory that is Maynard. He came out dressed in his evangelist getup, complete with a white fuzzy wig, and makeup. He introduced the band, Danny, himself, Justin, and introduced as the "original sinner" Adam. Then they kicked into Sweat, how appropriate, not only was everyone sweating, but "takes me home". Next they played Stinkfist. During which a girl in the crowd decided to take off her shirt and slam around half naked with all the other shirt-less freaks. Then the played jimmy, with Maynard syaing to Adam, "dead Ohio sky?". Next Maynard said this was a special show for him, cuz his mom was there, sitting off to the side of the stage. He mentioned something about being a bad boy and was going to get a spanking later. Then they launched right into Prison Sex, w/ the alt. verse. Next they did Sober, during which I had to get out and get some air. Next was Eulogy with some extended voice-over starting it off, something about following people and believing in stuff. The best was Opiate, done to perfection. They then led right into Flood. Although they must have played for an hour, it seemd horribly short. Seeing Tool play live was definitely worth the 5 hour drive and 8 hour wait in the burning sun( next time I have to remember sun block). I wished I could have see them all by themselves, with more of a Tool oriented crowd, but do what you have to to get out there and see them this summer. Maynard is God.

Review written by: Rainna (kyt_tyn@yahoo.com) Review posted on: 07/15/98 14:54:09 all i have to say is how much better the show would have been if i wasn't being kicked in the head by some crowdsurfing drunk old headbanger every five seconds. maynard was so cute in his little televangeslist outfit but it was even better when he got practically naked and stripped down to his scooby doo boxers (wooo-hoo!) the people around me ooo'ed and awed as they brought out danny's drumset, and i heard alot of "sober!!!!"'s screamed in between songs and during the beginning of euology. maynard's mother attended the show, and of course they played jimmy. before they started playing it maynard said "under a dead ohio sky", not that many people in the crowd kn ew what he was talking about. it seemed like they didn't play for very long, but i guess they did. i didn't really appreciate the looks from the people around me as i got into the music, as if i was psycho or something! i'm just waiting for the day i get to see them by themselves without a bunch of drunk old hippies and tommy hillfiger people around at a crowded festival. at least they got a lot of money.

Review written by: Dick (doesn't matter) Review posted on: 07/15/98 11:46:46 Well, all the other reviews tell you about Reverand Maynard and all so i wont get into that, but i just want to say I listened to 5 hours of BS to get to 3 good bands. Now, I'm usually the last person to say a band sucks after just hearing them once. After all, I'm usually defending bands like Tool when people say they suck. However, I'm just not digging this new anger-metal\Korn style of music. The 5 beginning bands before Megadeth were Snot, Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit, and 2 others I cant even remember. Not a single band singed more often then not. Limp Bizkit was OK because they covered a House of Pain song (even rapping is better than growling), and a George Michael song (even though I really dont like him at all). Why are so many bands pissed off all the fucking time? What's wrong with just singing? Everyone had to growl and that just sounds so incredibly stupid to me. Regardless, Megadeth was awesome, even though I don't know many songs (hearing mechanix is basically hearing the four horsemen), Tool was the best although they played hardly any songs, and Ozzy was great. Instead of 10 hours of hell it should have been 6 hours of Megadeth Tool and Ozzy

Review written by: Stav (stav@worldgain.com) Review posted on: 07/15/98 11:29:05 this is my first tool review; i hope this is not TOO much of an OZZ review for ya, but every other review ive read is about dead-on for tool's performance (see below)... the day was fabulous. i showed up about 2pm while SNOT was playing. They were damn good. Then SEVENDUST kicked about the same ass. COAL CHAMBER also was good. these three bands had a lot of friggin energy! SOULFLY was deccent and LIMP BIZKIT's scratchin was just ok. and then MEGADETH gave all the drunk aging hillbillies an eighties, retro, flyin-V, tight jeans and no shirt hair-poofin extraveganza. The second stage was timed pretty damn good so you could flop between stages and hear most of each band's set, but was marked by a close-quarter tension that was the result of nobody dancing, or even moving around. I think this tense calm freaked out more than one band. ULTRASPANK kicked ass and THE MELVINS playlist was as strange as their CDs; 5 minutes of feedback from the bass... hmmmm: good though. KILGORE had 5 chicks, count em, five chicks with their tits painted in one of the "Never-Never Land" booths dancing around on stage for a few songs, all naked and shit! cool. good energy. but the second stage was blown away by SYSTEM OF A DOWN (produced by Sylvia Massey who produced Tool's "Opiate" and "Undertow"). these guys are freaks! but they rocked way hard, if you get a chance, dont miss em. then finally, "Hello Cleveland. We're MOTORHEAD and we're gonna fuck you up..." big crown for these brits. Ok finally! i left motorhead to get a good spot for the real deal. but i could only squeeze up to about 30 meters from the stage off right. suck! but as soon as MJK walked on and pseudo-preached, "Can i get a YEEEAAAS! Can i get a HAALELLUIAH! Praise... somthin or other!" hilarious! and Sweat started and me and the rest of the would-be moshers flooded straight to the pit, which by the LoLLA pit standards was far rowdier! slightly head-hunting, actually. seven songs went by so fast that i was left pleading with MJK's mother to make him play one more song. Pushit would have been killer! i was out of there by 9:00 pm Ozz was too anti-climactic form me. C U in toledo in a week.

Review written by: shaun (nomaam98@aol.com) Review posted on: 07/15/98 00:33:51 it was an awesome show. first maynard came out in a cheap suit and white wig as rev. maynard. it was hilarious. he was doing a bunch of crazy shit while singing sweat, and he stripped down to some scooby doo boxers during stinkfist. they had a big circu lar tent which they flashed a bunch of images on, including the smoke box, but they were near impossible to see in the daylight.some asswipe almost hit maynard with a shoe, but he didnt get pissed, danny, adam, and justin just plain rocked it, and it was a bad ass show

Review written by: Nick (CesaroSum@aol.com) Review posted on: 07/14/98 22:14:34 Let me tell you,this is the 2nd tool concert i've been to and was by far the best act at ozzfest.I got right up close to the stage,and i waited for about a half-hour,which was at 8:00 when tool finally came out...once again maynard was dressed as an aveng elist,and the first thing out of his maouth was "Ok,now can i get a Yeees??",he then went on to sing sweat,afterwards he introduced all the members as reverends except for justin,who got introduced as a jew.then they sang stinkfist,and maynard,straying fr om his usual pelvic exertions,danced like and old man(on purpose,i'm not knocking him,it was still an awe-ing experience)and then during the extra bridge in stinfist,he started t do a strip-tease until he was down to his joe boxers.i couldnt stop laughing ,it was the funniest thing i'd seen all day.then they played the rest of the set with not much dialogue in between.after the played the first song(sweat) maynard announced that his mom,who had never seen them perform before,was on the side of the stage wa tching,she stood up for second,then maynard said "she'll be spanking me all the way to the dressing room because i've been a very naughty boy".after a few songs(the setlist is at the end of this review)maynard went over to danny and the were discussing w hether or not they had enough time to do pushit,and of course,they didnt.oh well...i was amazed anyway,tool is a very unique and awe-inspiring band.the sheer amount of thought put into everything shows their loyal work-ethic.unfortunatly,for some reason t heir set was cut down to 45 minutes...but it was still worth it. here's the setlist: 1.sweat 2.stinkfist 3.jimmy 4.prison sex 5.sober 6.eulogy 7.opiate/flood 6