Tool Rocks

The Mrs. and I saw Tool in concert last night. She was predictably less impressed than I was, but we both had a good time. First things first though. The opening band, Melt Banana, was one of the worst bands I've ever had to endure. They sucked so bad that I thought my ears were going to bleed by the end of their set. They were so horrible that they should be banned under the Geneva Convention's article regarding cruel and inhuman punishment. I've heard that rock music is used in Guantanamo Bay to somehow keep the prisoners under control... if they switched to this Melt Banana crap, the war on terror would have long since been finished. They sucked so bad that I'm not even going to give them a courtesy link.

Maybe this was part of Tool's ploy. I can picture Maynard and the crew now... "Hey, I know we're good and everything... I know that our fans love us, but picture this... Let's get the worst band we can find as an opening act. Then when we come on, we'll look doubly good." And that's kind of how it happened. By the way, Tool's performance was the polar opposite of the opening act. In other words, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tool's concert was significantly different from many other shows I've attended. In virtually every show I've seen, the vocalist is also the front man for the band, acting as a conduit between the band and the audience. Tool was a little different. Maynard actually stood in the back, and the spotlight fell on the axe men. This left me with the impression that Tool is a band of equals... that Maynard is one of four members of a team. The wife felt that it detracted from the interaction between the band and the audience.

The band played for three to three and a half hours, but they played surprisingly little of their recorded material during that time. A very large portion of the concert consisted of non-recorded stuff. I had a hard time knowing for sure if they were improvising, if it was filler material or what. I was able to imagine myself as a fly on the wall, watching the band in their basement, playing for the fun of it. My wife said that this further detracted from the interaction between the band and the audience, and the result was that she felt a little "isolated" from the band. I want to clarify that she enjoyed the concert... just not as much as I did. She agreed that Tool is an incredibly talented band. It's just that she didn't feel connected to them during the show. I understand where she's coming from, but I don't share the sentiment.

The one other thing that surprised me was that the show was essentially one long song. From the intro through the encore, there was no break in the music. There was always something going on in the background, and it was well accented by video and lasers in the background -- great eye candy to compliment the music.

In the end, what can I say? I'm glad I went. I'd certainly see them again, and I'd recommend the show to anyone who asked.