Tool rocks Detroit

Hours before the season’s first snow began to fall, Detroit’s Little Caesar’s Arena hosted a capacity crowd who were dazzled and thoroughly rocked by Tool, who continue their Fear Inoculum tour, celebrating the release of their first new album in 13 years. Fans waited a very long time in anticipation of what the new songs would sound like, and once they got to finally hear them in August, the next logical thought was how the new material might be presented on stage. Both seasoned veterans and newcomers alike were thrilled by the epic spectacle of Tool’s new show, continuing to build on a presentation they’ve been working with for the past 10 years or more.

The evening began with a loud opening set from post-punk legends, Killing Joke, influential to Tool, Metallica, Nirvana, and many others, though some in attendance might not have realized it. Similarly, Tool did a leg of touring in 2001 with prog-rock pioneers, King Crimson, showing appreciation for some of their favorites and influences. After a short set change, the lights went down (about 20 minutes sooner than expected), and the roar of the crowd began as the silhouettes of Keenan, Jones, Chancellor, and Carey took the stage. All told, Tool’s performance ran for about 2 hours and 15 minutes, including a 12-minute intermission before the fourth-quarter encore. The band instituted a well-advertised “no phones” policy within the performance area with orders for those who violated this rule to be removed from the venue rather than requiring patrons to lock their phones up in Yondr pouches, used recently by Jack White, Chris Rock, and The Raconteurs, among others. 

The show itself, a blend of later-era Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, and state-of-the art projections, lights, and lasers, is an overwhelming spectacle of an event that completely dwarfs almost any other rock concert by comparison, and those still just seeing Tool live for the first time are bound to be completely floored by the work and execution of such a massive production. Seeing Tool indoors, in a dark room, is superior to seeing them in an outdoor or open-air venue, though they certainly impress no matter where they may be playing. The set list for the Detroit concert was like other stops on the tour so far, and the biggest standout was the limited inclusion of new material. In previous album eras, especially the first few tours after a new album is released, Tool has often focused almost exclusively on the new songs with only a few from previous records sprinkled in. With only 3 of the 6 “proper” songs from Fear Inoculum being included, it is not only abnormal for Tool, it could imply they possibly don’t feel the new songs can stand on their own quite enough to support the large scale of the tour, or that they’ve become such a legacy act that there is an expectation among ticket-buyers that they get something closer to a greatest hits show than one that dives deep into the epic darkness of the new album. (Then again, see Lateralus-era set lists from 2001-2002.)

The show opened with an amazingly delivered rendition of “Fear Inoculum” set against an IMAX sized screen behind the band and a translucent drop-cloth screen surrounding the front of the stage, each often featuring different, simultaneous projections, mainly abstract and often colorful, but synched perfectly with the changes throughout the song. Nine Inch Nails has used a comparable front projection a few times in the past. Similar production carried over through the whole concert.  Following the opening number, many fans expected the band to continue right into “Pneuma”, the new album’s second track, but instead, Tool launched into a retrospective of radio singles, including one song each from the previous three LPs before getting back to the new material. While the two-part punch of “Parabol” and “Parabola” never fails to amaze, especially once they reach the coda, “Aenema” sounded a bit more forced and less inspired. “The Pot” ripped with the same intensity as the album recording, but it was performed in a lower key and vocal register. After the first few songs, the front screen that was obscuring the band was raised, and as the concert progressed, the light show intensified, and lasers began appearing, first as accents, and, by the end, as a main feature of the orchestration. Other “best of” moments featured during the main set included “Schism” (2001), “Vicarious” (2006), and “Forty-Six & 2” (1996), each often featuring extended introductions or bridges, allowing the band to jam a bit during each song.

While the show, based on song selection, ended up being more comparable to Tool’s tours of the past 10 years, during the new-music drought, the visual and tonal presentation and design of the show was new, including album art on Danny Carey’s bass drums and a goth-punk look for vocalist, Maynard Keenan, who continued to spend most of the show, as he has for most Tool shows so far this century, on risers to either side of the drum kit, usually in motion, but out of the spotlights that shone down brightly on the band’s other members. No video cameras were present to show close-ups of the group on a big screen. It’s just not that kind of show.

A mid-concert section that included “Jambi” featured additional keyboards from Killing Joke’s Roi Robinson, similar to jams with friends and members of opening acts Tool has been doing since 2006. Right after that, a focus on the drums segued into samples and loops familiar to fans of the band as “Merkaba”, a jam usually used to lead up to performances of “Sober”, arguably the band’s best-known song, but here simply served as a transition back into more recognizable songs at the end of the main set.

The highlights of the night, though only a few were played, were the new songs. The pacing and matching of lighting and projections throughout “Pneuma” added a layer of energy that allowed the song to have a greater and more powerful impact when performed live. “Invincible”, featured after the short intermission and Carey’s extended synthesizer/drum solo (technically listed as “Chocolate Chip Trip” though not identical to that track on the new album), utilized the lighting and lasers to enhance the heavy sound and weighty tone of the song and its reflective subject matter. While a few other stops on the tour have featured the flawless new song, “Descending”, in place of “Invincible”, none so far have included “7empest”, the very best and most intense of the 6 new “proper” songs, possibly being held in reserve for the tour’s second or third legs next year. Tool have also been featuring random deep cuts among the more recognizable songs at most shows in the past decade, and this particular Detroit stop included the raging, “Part of Me”, originally from the band’s debut EP, 1992’s Opiate. Introduced by Keenan as a song that was written before 30-year-olds in the audience were born, this short blast of throwback anger delighted long-time fans of the band as well as those who never got to experience Tool’s earlier shows and had never seen it performed.

Following the intermission, drum solo, and beautiful performance of “Invincible”, Keenan told the crowd that “while it’s still annoying, you can take out your phones during this next song,” which ended up being the concert’s last, an over-the-top rendition of “Stinkfist” as a climax to the concert. Nearly everyone in the room snapped photos and shot video of one of the band’s most successful and best-known songs as the laser show took over one last time and the original music video played on the giant screen behind them. After just over two full hours of music (not including the intermission), the house lights came up, and the band gave a quick wave to the crowd, with Jones and Carey (bedecked in a full Detroit Pistons uniform) taking a bit more time leaving the stage compared to Chancellor and Keenan. As the spent but smiling audience began to empty the arena, Abba’s “Dancing Queen” came up on the PA to entertain during the exit, and a sold out crowd headed out into the cool, autumn evening in various states of satisfaction and disbelief, but all had been thoroughly rocked to their core, and most were already thinking hopefully about the next time they’ll be seeing Tool. 

******

Killing Joke set list:

Butcher

Tomorrow’s World

Eighties

Seeing Red

Complications

$, O, 36
Total Invasion

Loose Cannon

The Wait

Pandemonium

-----------------------------

******

Tool set list:

Fear Inoculum

Aenema

The Pot

Parabol

Parabola

Pneuma

Schism

Jambi (w/Roi Robertson)

Merkaba (jam)

Vicarious

Part of Me

Forty-Six & 2

----------------------(intermission)----

Chocolate Chip Trip

Invincible

(-) ions

Stinkfist

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(Abba-“Dancing Queen” outro music)