This was the biggest, best and most precise TOOL show Toronto has ever seen
Throughout my years of being a TOOL fan, I've only had the opportunity to see them perform twice. The first was thirteen years ago when they released their album 10,000 days. I managed to save up enough money from my high school grocery store job for one ticket to see them at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario. I remember the experience vividly with fans passing around joints and one man, in particular, wearing a garbage bag and shaking feverishly throughout the entirety of the laser laced show (don't do hard drugs kids). It was a great experience and a show that up until Monday night went down as one of the most visually intense rock shows I had ever witnessed.
Thirteen years later TOOL’s live show at Scotiabank Arena wasn't that different from my first experience. It wasn’t the same, but it wasn’t that different. It was an evolved TOOL.
The stage was bigger, the screens were bigger featuring ultra surreal visuals and the band sounded bigger. Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, and Justin Chancellor were still as far apart as possible on stage, but their connection to each other was on another level. The evolution was a subtle, but impactful. If this was an Apple keynote presentation it would read: This was the biggest, best and most precise TOOL Toronto has ever seen.
Their sound was tight, infectious and near perfect. Their visuals were the ones on drugs this time around with massive walls filled with screens. Maynard's vocals cut through soundwaves with razor-sharp precision, filled with more passion and energy that I would've expected. TOOL has perfected their sound, their live shows, and their musicianship together as a single entity.
The show on Monday night was otherworldly.
The song choices flowed together seamlessly, giving us a good sampling of new songs and a healthy dose of older tunes (a notable highlight was when they played "Intolerance" off 1993's Undertow). One of my favourite moments of the night was surprisingly early on in the set when they performed "Pneuma". It was perfectly in sync with the visuals and left me floored.
TOOL performed a one-of-a-kind show that proved why they're a true force in music. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to see them again and they won’t wait so long to release new music.
TOOL Setlist:
Fear Inoculum
Ænema
Parabol
Parabola
Pneuma
Schism
Jambi
Vicarious
Intolerance
Descending
Forty Six & 2
Chocolate Chip Trip
Invincible
(-) Ions
Stinkfist
