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| Tool's Maynard James Keenan @ Chase Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
At nearly two years to the day, Tool returned to the Bay Area last night with an appearance at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The bands' last visit was at the SAP Center in San Jose back on January 14th, 2020 and just before COVID-19 changed everything. At that time, Tool had just launched a tour to promote their 2019 release, Fear Inoculum, and within a few months was forced to hit the pause button. Well, fast forward to January 2022, and things are slowly getting better -- even though we're in the midst of a surge in infections linked to the Omicron variant, live music has started to return over the past 6 months or so. The Chase Center requires masks and vaccinations, so even with the recent surge, this was the show that would kick off 2022 for me and I didn't want to miss it! And as expected the band made up of Adam Jones (guitar), Justin Chancellor (bass), Danny Carey (drums), and Maynard James Keenan (vocals) returned with a vengeance!
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| Adam Jones of Tool @ Chase Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
This was the fifth show of the re-started tour, and the band launched into the night with the pulsing beat of the title track from that '19 release, Fear Inoculum. The set design wasn't any different from two years ago. Danny was placed perched on a drum riser at center stage and had the spotlights on him throughout most of the night. Another bandmate not to shy away from the spotlight, Justin kept the audience engaged with his driving bass and syncopated pelvic thrusts -- staying mainly on the front right of the stage for most of the night. The duo of Danny and Justin are the heartbeat of the band, Danny with his intricate drum beats and Justin's flanged bass lines provide the core of the Tool sound. Obviously Adam's guitars and Maynard's vocals fill in to make the full package, but Danny and Justin deserve the stage spotlights for not only being the backbone of the band, but for filling the cavernous Chase Center with their driving rhythms. For Adam's part, he lurked at the front left of the stage and popped in-and-out of the spotlight while as-is typical of Maynard, he remained mostly in the shadows for the entire night -- perched on one of two risers to the left and right of Danny's drum kit. This shouldn't be shocking to anyone, but the band members themselves aren't the most energetic onstage... You won't find them jumping or running across the stage, or really just simply moving from their spots. The band's purpose is to let the music be the foundation of the experience and only augmented by the incredible, and I do mean incredible combinations of visuals that their creative team has assembled. The visuals are a combination of projected video footage as trippy as their early MTV videos, an impressive light display, lasers, and what could be a first for the band, confetti! A translucent curtain hung from the lighting rig hung high above the stage up until Pneuma and which allowed additional visuals to be project on it, while giving the band some distance from the audience -- maybe setting the expectation up front that we should be focused on the music and visuals tonight and not what's happening on stage.
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| Adam Jones & Danny Carey of Tool @ Chase Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
So with the band leading off with the title track from their newest album, for their second song, they dug deep with their first big single, "Sober", one of my favorites and the song's debut so far on this tour. "The Pot" and "Pushit" followed, but then it was time for the curtain to give way and opening guitar notes of "Pneuma" rang out. As Adam's solo concluded, the spot lights lowered from the ceiling and into the crowd as it was Justin's turn to take the second verse of the thus so far instrumental opening of the song. The flange effect was in full force while Justin was then joined by Danny and Adam all while creating the driving pulse of the song for the first three minutes before Maynard joined in. And then midway through the 12-minute song, the laser light show streamed from the stage and created an even more epic visual.
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| Justin Chancellor of Tool @ Chase Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
"Pneuma" was one of many highlights from the two hour set -- and you can see the full setlist below. The band goes on promptly at 8:45, has a 15-minute intermission at about 10:15, and then concluded right at about 11pm. If you're reading this outside the bay area, be sure to make it in time for the show opener, Blonde Redhead. They're a 3-piece shoegaze rock band handpicked by Maynard to open this run of dates. They went on at 7:30 and lead singer, Kazu Makino, commented about mid-way through their set "We've got 45 minutes to play as much as we can for all of you. You may not want to hear us, but we're very excited for this. Thank you." From what I could tell of the audience, we were all into the music even though it was a bit of a departure from Tool's typical sound. And definitely worth catching if you haven't heard of them before!
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| Tool's Maynard James Keenan @ Chase Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
All in all, Tool continues to be a tour de force in modern (prog) rock that continues to evolve and push boundaries. I'd argue that the band's latest album features the most complex writing and rhythms found on any of their prior albums, and I challenge you to find the beat across most of the songs on this album. It's easily among the best new albums released over the past 3 years. Tool's challenge has, and continues to be, that their 10+ minute songs simply don't lend themselves to radio (if anyone listens to that anymore?!?) or the short attention spans of the modern day listener. Dedicate the time to sit down, put a good pair of headphones on, and actively listen to the complexity of Fear Inoculum. You won't be disappointed -- but what am I saying? If you've made it this far, I'm hopefully preaching to the choir!
If and when Tool returns to the SF Bay Area, don't miss this show! Let's just hope we don't have to wait another two years to see them live again!
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