TOOL CONCERT #26.

RANK: #1. Hands down.


First of all let me start by mentioning that New Orleans has been the greatest city I’ve had the pleasure of visiting in the few years I’ve tried to follow tool around. Words cannot describe the incredible vibe and atmosphere of NOLA. It’s a very similar feeling to Las Vegas – touristy, casinos, and alcohol on public streets is legal. The Bourbon Street area is just ridiculous! I’m not a huge fan of jazz music, but the local people here really have a passion for music. I saw tons of signs and people talking about how “NOLA is music”, and last night there was a random group of 15-20 teenagers randomly showing up on the sidewalk/road and started jamming some decent jazz tunes. There is a lot of passion and pride in this city. This is all the more special considering the unfortunate events this city has gone through recently (Katrina/Oil Spill). Overall, NOLA, you are fucking awesome! Definitely going to come back here one day.

On to TOOL.

It’s funny, with the Blair post about how they MIGHT play a new setlist, plus Junior’s post about the crew being in NOLA almost a week in advance… I was thinking there MIGHT be a chance they will play a new setlist. But then again, that’s what I said last summer. I get into the venue and I almost immediately knew we were in for a treat tonight. These weren’t minor stage changes. To summarize:

-No more white floor stage with visuals on it. There’s a carpet now
-The past few tours have had 3 screens. The usual long horizontal one behind the band, plus the 2 on both sides of the stage. Now there are SEVEN SCREENS. Yes, 7. The platform where nardo and danny play on now has a screen built into it. The floor of DC’s platform and the side facing the audience is a screen. There is also a screen on the ceiling/lighting area, facing the audience.
-Most significantly, they added 2 “moving screens”. They are hidden at the top of the stage at the beginning of the show, but they move around all over the place during various songs. For lateralus they lowered to stage level directly behind adam/Justin.
-Lasers for the standard Aenema/Lateralus/Vicarious and NEW lasers for the patient
-NEW videos for third eye/the patient/and possibly others.

Anyways, excuse me while I jizz my pants:

THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE THEY FUCKING OPENED WITH THIRD EYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously. Enough said. I should end this review right there.

Before the band came on stage they played the audio of the “think for yourself, question authority” and had a video of what I presume is timothy saying the words. The band walks out – and right into Third Eye! The visuals were absolutely insane, and definitely new specifically for this tour.

As the band started playing Third Eye, nardo took out his cellphone camera and took a picture of DC, then walked over to Justin to take his picture. Then realized he already missed the first few words of the lyrics to third eye and ran back to his platform to start the song late. Then after the lyrics continued his photoshoot with adam. I’m pretty sure he was texting or something for the first half of Third Eye since he was constantly looking down at his phone. “oh right…I’m singing fucking third eye at a tool concert..better get back to that”.

Honestly I don’t remember much about Jambi/Stinkfist/Vicarious because the entire time I was still thinking. “WTF. Did that just happen?” What a way to tell all of us “FUCK OFF ABOUT SETLIST BITCHING”.

I stand corrected, Tool. A lot of us owe you an apology now.

Jambi was the usual compared to previous tours – same video on screens and adam rocked the talkbox solo. Stinkfist was extended with same visuals. Vicarious was the usual with lasers introduced to the show and the “vicarious jam” intro from previous tours they’ve done.

Eon Blue+The Patient was absolutely epic! First time I got to experience this song live. Also I should mention that Nardo’s vocals were fairly clear for most of the show. Unlikely previous tours/shows, he wasn’t too drowned out in the background and was fairly audible. I guess that also depends on the venue and where your sitting as well.

The Patient was ridiculously awesome. They used lasers for this song which I thought was a great touch – and somewhere around here they lowered the 2 other screens to make the video play on a total of 7 different sized screens all over the stage. Fucking intense!

Then Maynard says to the crowd “Do you like to travel back in time? I like to travel back in time”. After a few moments I remembered the Blair post about an older song with question marks on the setlist. Then a moving version of the Undertow logo appears on the back screens and they break into Intolerance. WICKED! Holy fucking shit. Words cannot describe the feeling of getting Third Eye/Patient/Intolerance all in one show! It’s amazing what a difference just a few songs can make.

Thank you Tool. You’ve made all the ridiculous time and effort I’ve spent on you worth every penny. This has easily been the best tool show I’ve ever experienced. I would probably say it’s safe to assume that tonight was the best tool concert since the Lateralus era tours in 2001-2002.

I’ll end my review on this note: I highly encourage every single person who reads this review (and likely the reviews to follow) to do whatever it takes to get to one of these shows. I’ve been to a lot of Tool concerts, but what I experienced tonight was a totally new level of intensity and inspiration.

Peace NOLA. Thanks for the best weekend of my life.