Tool - Concert Review [D1 Music]

Tool was totally not what I was expecting either musically or artistically. I had listened to a few songs like Schism and Sober, but I'm not a hardcore Tool fan. I was used to some pretty quiet though dark sounds.
Then woah! The concert was anything but quiet. Tool's songs gain so much more flavor in a live setting like that. I was totally blown away by the force of the music.

It's been mentioned before that Tool has a different mentality towards touring; that's very true. The concert was much more about a creative conceptive whole, rather than just the music. Most concerts focus on the music, but Tool just seems to use their music as one of many parts to an overall theme.

So, conceptually, the concert was like a 2 hour extended music video for Schism...but it progressed enough that my interest was always captivated. My only confusion was that there was so much going on that I wasn't sure where to put my attention...there was the band itself, obviously, and also this beautifully down backdrop that revealed several faces throughout the show depending on the lighting. But the forefront visuals were the two double-rear-projected screens to each side of the stage. I kept feeling bad that I wasn't always looking at the band, because the projected graphics were so beautifully done, but finally I gave up trying to divide my attention and focused soley on the projections. Once I did that, I feel like I really completed Tools intention to provide a different type of show, and it was an amazing experience.

Ok, I'm gonna switch into theatre technician mode here. There is nothing I like better than a well-used light rig, and Tool was up there at the top of the best lighting shows I've seen. It was actually one of the smaller concert rigs I've seen in awhile, but it was used so incredibly well. The lighting designer does a lot of neat things with gobo rotations on the backdrop, as well as the use of blacklight. And the disco ball and confetti just made it that much cooler.

We arrived in the middle of Meshugga's performance. They sound really good live, but there wasn't anything too spectacular to comment on. I'll just say that they're talented enough to make you NOT want to walk out and buy a 3$ soda. But, yeah, what I did hear I liked.

My overall rating of this concert: 4.5 stars. It's a very interesting spin on the typical concert setting, and while it's not quite what you're expecting, it is a completely entertaining experience.