tool at PNC Arts Center, USA 7/18/07

This is a special band. There is no other band in the world like /tool\. I thought they were (as usual) superb in every sense of the word.

This was my 3rd time seeing /tool\ live. I have been looking forward to this tour since the Lateralus tour, which was just a mindblowing experience.

Well, this tour, in support of 10000 Days, did not reach the same level of exalted heights as the previous tour. But it came close...

First of all, their stage set is amazing, totally unlike anything I ever seen, and I've been going to rock shows since the mid 70's. The stage is completely white, a blank slate. Danny Carey on Drums off to stage right, Adam Jones, (guitar)  is far stage left, Justin Chancellor (bass) far stage right, and Maynard (mad genius) is stage rear left on a riser next to the drums.

Now /tool\ is a famously mysterious act, and Maynard lives and breathes mystery. He is the anti-David Lee Roth, with anti-LeadSingersDisease, since he never once appeared center stage, never once was he even in a spotlight, he basically appears in shadowy sillouette (in "my shadowland") with the incredible visuals as his backdrop. So the effect is this slippery shadow writhing and sinuating to this incredible pulsating immersive experience with your subconcious that is /tool\.

Carey is an absolute monster on his kit, no one I've seen since John Bonham pounds his skins with anymore fury, he attacks his kit. What a wonderful combination with the bass, just a killer section.

Back to the visuals, they were the most impressive I've seen since their own last tour...four big screens as a backdrop, a huge screen over that, secondary screens throughout, absolutely jawdropping lights and lasers mixed with smoke, they even had lasers and smoke coming out of the soundboard, this lightshow is just awesome, its like Pink Floyd at the planetarium only more intense, this is psychedelic metal at its finest. (and perhaps uniquely /tool\.)

One thing I found so friggin amazing is the stage itself is part of the visuals. All of the visual effects are also projected onto the stage, so its as if the musicians are actually performing within the visuals, which makes them even more stunningly effective.

I love all the sounds the /tool\ shed creates. Every song was at least 10 minutes long, no song just begins, every song needs a nice long toolshed intro, with shadowman Maynard creating weird toolsounds with his mysterymaynard box, Adam creating incredible controlled feedback with his ginormous effect rack, the bass and drums forming a cohesive pallette for these sonic colors to reside within...I loved it! :)

OK, gotta head out, I'll post some other thoughts and the setlist later, I'll just finish by saying this experience should be seen at least once, but not this tour, because I think last night was the last show on the US tour at least...