Tool Satisfy Toronto Fans

The Molson Amphitheatre

Toronto, ON

on Aug 5 2009

Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

08/06/2009 3:01pm

Tool fans are used to waiting.

Singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey took the stage nearly an hour after their scheduled set time at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre on Wednesday night.

This would make the average crowd antsy, but Tool fans are an unusually loyal bunch, and seeing as Tool release a new album an average of every five years it's not like their supporters haven't learned patience. Let's not forget that even just listening to the band requires fortitude (that's not meant as a diss), since their songs are frequently over 10 minutes in length.

There's no concrete plans to release a new album on the horizon just yet (although Tool have said they're writing new material), and Tool's most recent disc is 2006's 10,000 Days, but it's probably a testament to just how incredibly loyal Tool fans are that the Amphitheatre was packed. Even before Tool came on stage, security guards were having trouble containing the fans dancing in the aisles, they were so pumped to see their favourite band.

After opening with "Jambi" from 10,000 Days, Keenan was a bit taken aback by the amount of people crammed into the venue.

"Holy shit, that's a lot of Canadians," he said. "It's pretty much all of you, right?"

What followed was a bit of a greatest hits set, which mostly consisted of the band's singles. Tool ran through AEnima's "Stinkfist" and "Forty-Six & 2" and Lateralus' "Schism" with the videos for all three tracks playing on the massive screens behind them.

During "Forty-Six & 2," Keenan made some kind of weird reference to Stephen Hawking. It's unclear if he was in the audience or Keenan was making fun of the band's guitar tech. All of the band's roadies wear white lab coats, and it's well-known that Tool are massive science and math nerds.

That nerdiness came into full view during "Lost Keys" and "Rosetta Stone," which take up a big chunk of 10,000 Days. Green lasers flashed from the stage out into the audience while the screens behind the band displayed images from Asteroids. Yes, the video game.

A Tool show is the kind of visual experience you'll probably never have again. Tool aren't a psychedelic rock band, but the influence of psychedelic and early prog rock bands like King Crimson on their work and their visuals is readily apparent. So are their obsessions with math, science and religion.

This combination seems strange at first, since the sciences and religion are commonly portrayed as complete opposites, but it works for Tool. Tool's music is meticulous and played perfectly despite its difficulty and constantly shifting time signatures, while Keenan's lyrics can sometimes be about existence, the metaphysical and problems with religion.

During "Flood," a seven-pointed star, or heptagram (a symbol that's important to Wicca and Judaism and numerous other peoples), appeared on the screens while images of mathematical equations and diagrams of the human muscular system flashed behind it.

Tool's music really is like religion and science colliding on the stage, and it's extremely appropriate that their live visuals should reflect this. It also makes seeing them that much more intense.

The band ended with a blistering version of "AEnema" while red and white lights that resembled the old Japanese flag or peppermints flashed over the stage. You couldn't help but notice the (probably intentional) irony of neon lasers beaming into the audience when Keenan was singing about Los Angeles being "one great, big, festering neon distraction."

The band briefly left the stage while ambient music played before they returned to run through an encore of "Lateralus" and "Vicarious." Crystal Castles' live drummer, Chris Robin, joined the band on stage as their second drummer during the former track, while Keenan sang in his boxers.

You couldn't help but wish the band would be a little more intense with their performance, though. Keenan largely stuck to the same platform the entire night, while Jones and Chancellor were keen to headbang in the same spot for most of the evening. Carey, though, was the hardest working man of the entire gig.

Nonetheless, this performance ought to tide Tool fans over until 2011, which, given their track record, will probably be when their next album shows up. Tool fans will see them no matter what and aren't going away, no matter how long they take to release an album or come on stage because they know it's not about how fast you do it, but how well you do it.

Here's what Tool played:

"Jambi"
"Stinkfist"
"Forty-Six And Two"
"Schism"
"Lost Keys"
"Rosetta Stoned"
"Flood"
"Aenema"
"Lateralus" (encore)
"Vicarious"