Band: Tool
Date: July 18, 2010
Venue: Club Nokia
City: Los Angeles, CA
TOOL
Photos by Nicolas Bates
Written by Lindsay Murphy
At Club Nokia, situated in the flashy new LA Live area, prog-metal band Tool delivered an ambitious, mesmerizing show unlike any other being played today.
The band has not released an album since 2006’s critically-acclaimed 10,000 Days, and they didn’t reveal any new material. But die-hard fans still flocked to fill the enormous venue at the end of this unexpected tour.
The anxious audience awaited Tool as roadies donning white lab coats, aprons, and face paint set up the stage. A video of counterculture icon and LSD advocate Timothy Leary introduced the show, repeatedly instructing, “Think for yourself. Question authority.” The band then launched into fifteen-minute epic “Third Eye,” as psychedelic images danced on the screen behind them.
“Whatever’s happening outside these walls has nothing to do with what’s going on here,” vocalist Maynard James Keenan sermonized after the song ended. “For the next two hours, it’s about us.” Other than this statement, the singer spoke few words and kept audience interaction at a minimum to avoid detracting from the multi-sensory experience.
Tool’s unconventional stage formation is one of the glaring differences that separate them from other live shows. Sharing risers with drummer Danny Carey, frontman Maynard James Keenan remained in the back of the stage, shrouded in shadows for the entire show. Past interviews have explained that the lighting and video design purposely puts Maynard behind the light, allowing him to connect to the music on a more personal level without the pressure and harsh glare, thereby enabling him to put on a better show. Guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor mostly stuck to their stations at the front corners of the stage.
While the scant movement might be a detriment to other bands’ live offerings, Tool purposely attempts to remove the audience’s focus from the individual members and instead place it on the stunning audio-visual stimulation. They don’t want it to be about them—they intend for it to be a comprehensive visceral experience. Enveloped in music and assaulted by visuals, fans are successfully distracted into a more cerebral level.
A long, tall screen spanned the entire stage behind the band, while several others descended, tilted, and rose again during different songs, and two large displays stayed fixed at the sides. Intricate laser beams and swirling lights shot out at the audience, but the band remained dimly lit. Much of the unsettling imagery pulled from their inventive stop-motion videos, the conceptual brainchild of Jones. The screens often offered similar variations of unformed human characters, appearing as fetal adults in dreamlike settings.
The crowd banged their heads, sang along, played air guitar, and rocked out to intense hits like “Stinkfist,” “Vicarious,” and “Schism” as much as possible despite seating constraints. Deviating from their normal set, Tool pulled out “Right in Two” and the sludgy “Flood,” much to the elation of dedicated fans.
Chancellor and Carey created the palpitating, suddenly shifting rhythm section that drives Tool’s well-oiled sound. Silhouetted against the backdrop screen, Maynard rocked from right to left in a hunched, wide stance and infused the music with his enigmatic vocals.
After “Forty-Six and Two,” the band left for the stage for an intermission saturated with experimental sound and visuals, eliminating the charade of making the audience beg for an encore. Roadies scrambled to set up a second drum kit, angled to face Carey’s.
Tool returned and began playing in a circle surrounding Carey’s drums, before moving back to their normal posts. Thin fingers of red and yellow laser lights fanned out in sync to “Lateralus,” reflecting the lyrics. Drummer Gino Barboni from opening act Rajas joined them for a drum battle. A still-shaded Maynard stood sandwiched between kits, holding a paper arrow indicating turns for the dueling drummers. Carey’s impeccable solos and incredible intensity solidified him as the band member to watch throughout the show.
“I’d like to dedicate this bottle of Arizona wine to the next song,” Maynard stated in a wink to those who knew the lyrics to “Aenema.” A song blasting the vapid consumerist culture of Los Angeles and dreaming of a soggy SoCal apocalypse, it was the perfect way to end the show to Angelenos who could especially identify with his sentiments.