Tool, April 30, Coachella 2006
this entry brought to you by tool, "the pot"
There was a moment not too long before Tool went onstage when one of the lighting technicians obviously found a problem with the set and was scrambling up a three story high (or more) ladder to work on it. "Wouldn't it be horrible if that guy fell?" I said aloud to Michelle. A moment later another techie darted up the ladder, and two meatheads wearing Tool shirts walked up behind me and chortled, "Dude, I hope that fucker falls. Hahaha. I wanna get fuckin' stoned." This, to me, felt like a prime example of the two distinct types of fan that Tool has; the sensitive, intellectual type that likes Tool for their complex time signatures and deep metaphors, and the fratboy who likes Tool because, well, they're great to get stoned and kick ass to. The problem is that while I think the former group has larger numbers, the latter is much more easy to spot, and, consequently be annoyed by because, like a fratboy, they like to make their presence obvious. It's not as if the idiots ruined anybody's evening, but meatheadery definitely reared its fat, obnoxious face throughout the day, and when someone wearing an Art Brut t-shirt mumbled "God, I hate Tool fans," it wasn't difficult to understand where they were coming from.
But then, as the evening turned into night and a perfect, refreshing breeze blew through the crowd and, from a dark stage, Maynard greeted us with a friendly "Good evening hippies! I smell patchooouuuuli!", after which the band ripped into a stunning "Stinkfist", all was forgiven between the two sects of Tool fans-- there seemed to be a common bond. Whether this was your first Tool concert or 15th, we were all gathered to experience a band that, completely and 100% on their own terms, rules, and merits, have very firmly established themselves as rock gods.
The main stage at Coachella is equipped with two giant monitors and had a five-piece camera crew, so essentially no matter how far away you were, if you were facing the stage you could see what was going on. Tool, on the other hand, had their videos playing on the screens, and their light show featured no spotlights, so unless you were right up front you couldn't see the band, though if you were lucky you could see the occasional silhouette moving in front of the screens. This helped the mystique that is Tool-- they're rarely photographed, never show up in the own videos, and live they wanted their bizarre, often macabre, yet intriguing videos to keep your eyes busy. If nothing else, Tool was definitely the most uniquely identifiable band of the weekend and, it could be argued, of rock music for the past 16 years.
Because Tool removed themselves from the visual aspect of the performance, it allowed for a much heavier emphasis of the music, and, even removing all fanboy enthusiasm, Tool was the best performance I've ever heard live, topping even Tool's only peers, Nine Inch Nails. Though this was their first date of their tour and having not played for years, the band clearly benefited from having well over a decade of playing together. If they were rusty from not having played in front of an audience in years, they certainly didn't show it, playing a nearly flawless set that mixed mostly the obvious favorites (although hearing "Eon Blue Eclipse" melt into "The Patient" made me weak-kneed), with "The Pot", "Jambi", and "Vicarious", off the new album. I've seen Maynard twice before with his other band, A Perfect Circle, which is much more mellow and somber than Tool, and Maynard's voice changes accordingly. With Tool, however, his voice, perhaps the most beautiful and distinct male voice in rock music, effortlessly turns up a few notches of intensity. Tool has long been known as one of the best live hard rock bands of all time, and that Sunday night they were absolutely in peak form.
The day itself had been exhausting. As Tool took the stage at the beginning of the set I wasn't positive how I would be able to stand up, especially now that I was falling backwards from how dizzyingly overwhelming the band's super-tight sound was, let alone how I would be able to make it to the end of their hour-long set. And yet I felt compelled, body be damned, to stand there even longer. Not necessarily because of how much money I paid for the tickets, but because the band had me hooked; I needed to absorb more, I needed to let it all in me. It had been a long day, with a dozen excellent performances, and I honestly could have left hours before Tool's set and been happy. But of course, I'd already seen a bona fide rock star with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and caught a brief glimpse of Madonna, perhaps the biggest pop star of all time, but if I'd have left earlier that night from exhaustion, I wouldn't have experienced an even more important act: genuine rock gods.
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with love from CRS @ 10:44 PM
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
There was a moment not too long before Tool went onstage when one of the lighting technicians obviously found a problem with the set and was scrambling up a three story high (or more) ladder to work on it. "Wouldn't it be horrible if that guy fell?" I said aloud to Michelle. A moment later another techie darted up the ladder, and two meatheads wearing Tool shirts walked up behind me and chortled, "Dude, I hope that fucker falls. Hahaha. I wanna get fuckin' stoned." This, to me, felt like a prime example of the two distinct types of fan that Tool has; the sensitive, intellectual type that likes Tool for their complex time signatures and deep metaphors, and the fratboy who likes Tool because, well, they're great to get stoned and kick ass to. The problem is that while I think the former group has larger numbers, the latter is much more easy to spot, and, consequently be annoyed by because, like a fratboy, they like to make their presence obvious. It's not as if the idiots ruined anybody's evening, but meatheadery definitely reared its fat, obnoxious face throughout the day, and when someone wearing an Art Brut t-shirt mumbled "God, I hate Tool fans," it wasn't difficult to understand where they were coming from.
But then, as the evening turned into night and a perfect, refreshing breeze blew through the crowd and, from a dark stage, Maynard greeted us with a friendly "Good evening hippies! I smell patchooouuuuli!", after which the band ripped into a stunning "Stinkfist", all was forgiven between the two sects of Tool fans-- there seemed to be a common bond. Whether this was your first Tool concert or 15th, we were all gathered to experience a band that, completely and 100% on their own terms, rules, and merits, have very firmly established themselves as rock gods.
The main stage at Coachella is equipped with two giant monitors and had a five-piece camera crew, so essentially no matter how far away you were, if you were facing the stage you could see what was going on. Tool, on the other hand, had their videos playing on the screens, and their light show featured no spotlights, so unless you were right up front you couldn't see the band, though if you were lucky you could see the occasional silhouette moving in front of the screens. This helped the mystique that is Tool-- they're rarely photographed, never show up in the own videos, and live they wanted their bizarre, often macabre, yet intriguing videos to keep your eyes busy. If nothing else, Tool was definitely the most uniquely identifiable band of the weekend and, it could be argued, of rock music for the past 16 years.
Because Tool removed themselves from the visual aspect of the performance, it allowed for a much heavier emphasis of the music, and, even removing all fanboy enthusiasm, Tool was the best performance I've ever heard live, topping even Tool's only peers, Nine Inch Nails. Though this was their first date of their tour and having not played for years, the band clearly benefited from having well over a decade of playing together. If they were rusty from not having played in front of an audience in years, they certainly didn't show it, playing a nearly flawless set that mixed mostly the obvious favorites (although hearing "Eon Blue Eclipse" melt into "The Patient" made me weak-kneed), with "The Pot", "Jambi", and "Vicarious", off the new album. I've seen Maynard twice before with his other band, A Perfect Circle, which is much more mellow and somber than Tool, and Maynard's voice changes accordingly. With Tool, however, his voice, perhaps the most beautiful and distinct male voice in rock music, effortlessly turns up a few notches of intensity. Tool has long been known as one of the best live hard rock bands of all time, and that Sunday night they were absolutely in peak form.
The day itself had been exhausting. As Tool took the stage at the beginning of the set I wasn't positive how I would be able to stand up, especially now that I was falling backwards from how dizzyingly overwhelming the band's super-tight sound was, let alone how I would be able to make it to the end of their hour-long set. And yet I felt compelled, body be damned, to stand there even longer. Not necessarily because of how much money I paid for the tickets, but because the band had me hooked; I needed to absorb more, I needed to let it all in me. It had been a long day, with a dozen excellent performances, and I honestly could have left hours before Tool's set and been happy. But of course, I'd already seen a bona fide rock star with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and caught a brief glimpse of Madonna, perhaps the biggest pop star of all time, but if I'd have left earlier that night from exhaustion, I wouldn't have experienced an even more important act: genuine rock gods.
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