Blog

Sun 17 Jun – Tool, Melt-Banana

Sometimes you just have to take a road trip to see live music. Thus was the case two Sundays ago (6/17) when I embarked upon my journey with fellow road warriors Ross and John to Evansville to witness the concert spectacle that is Tool.

We started the day off at the Original Pancake House, which served up some amazing empty carbohydrates in the form of my favorite breakfast, good ol' French Toast. Yes, it does deserve to be capitalized. So with our stomachs full, our hearts racing, and our souls ignited, we ventured into the 95 degree + day in John's sans-air conditioning automobile, my wild eyes and sweaty hands behind the wheel.

The journey to southwestern Indiana was what road trip dreams are made of. Ross insisted that we should not partake in the listening of the band we were about to see on the day of the show. John and I outvoted him and Tool joined the summer heat to help kick our asses down I-70 and US 41. Belting out the lyrics to every heavy progressive second of Opiate, Undertow, and Aenima, we inched along our path, heavy sweat collecting on our brows, in our pits, and everywhere else imaginable. This is a Tool blog - it should be graphic, goddammit.

So we arrive in E-ville and hit up an AA meeting in the part of town the locals referred to as "Jimtown," or as one of the esteemed gentleman in the typical 12-step club referred to it, "the white part of town." Whoa. Racism along the Indiana-Kentucky border. Who'da thunk it?

We finally arrive at Roberts Stadium, a headache striding along with me, surely the product of three and a half hours in a 100 degree car, blaring heavy music, and good old-fashioned White Supremacy. I'm in a pissy mood as we enter the venue, bitching about being on the floor, my headache, and whatever else I could conjure up to feed my bullshit desire to be negative. We finally get inside the stadium and as soon as my feet hit the floor, my pissy attitude vanishes...at least for awhile.

Some of you know what this is about. There is something very special about
walking into the venue. The energy swarms all around your brain; the dank smells of stale popcorn, new and old beer, cigarette smoke; the people, some wearing hidden excitement, some adorning sneers similar to the skulls on their Metallica t-shirts; the lights, resting high above in the rafters, softly swaying back and forth, promising visions of colors and strobes and perhaps even a glimpse into a dimension beyond our own; the stage...ah, the stage - the site of our promised show, the instruments resting without sound, eager for human accompaniment to pluck their strings and strike their hides, eager to enable the rise of the consciousness and living awareness of the spirit we know dwells somewhere deep within us.

Okay, okay, I'm done with the philosophical exposition. On to the show.

The opening act goes by the name of Melt Banana. Yeah...um...My mama taught me that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I usually have difficulty following this suggestion, so I'm going to put it into practice here and just say that my headache did not vanish upon Melt Banana's arrival to the stage.

So then the standard half hour break, and then, TOOL. They came out like rock stars (as much as frontman Maynard James Keenan would love to deny it), glowing with energy at the site and sound of the crowd clapping and screaming for the music and talent resting in these four men's hands, vocal chords, and souls. Vocalist Maynard, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor, and drummer Danny Carey each took his place on stage (each a long distance from the others) and the music began.

Setlist:
Jambi
Stinkfist
46&2
Schism
Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman)
Rosetta Stoned
Flood
Wings For Marie
10,000 Days (Wings, Part II)
Lateralus
Vicarious

It may surprise those who are unfamiliar with Tool, but these 11 songs took the band two hours to perform. This is progressive music at its highest form - not because the songs are long, but because they are long and yet they mesmerize the listener so much that he or she does not even realize the band has been playing for ten-plus minutes. Jambi was a nice, energetic opener, but Stinkfist took it to a much higher level. The opening track from Aenima is a Tool classic, well-known and powerful. They extended it by putting an extra solo in there and upping the ante for the rest of the evening. 46&2 and Schism only lifted the energy higher and now we were truly riding waves of clouds drifting all over the stadium's landscape. Following Schism, the band took a small break to prepare itself and the audience for the 15 minute explosion that is Lost Keys and Rosetta Stoned.

We were about five-six rows of people back on the floor, and Chancellor, the bassist, was right in front of us. For Lost Keys, he created an amazing effect that I assumed while listening to the album was a regular electric guitar. But it was his bass, and here we were listening to this weaving whine, flowing in and out of our brains, creating a dizzying effect that was almost too overwhelming. There is a key change in that song that signifies that the music is about to be pumped up to a whole new level, and when Chancellor played it, I got goosebumps. Then Rosetta Stoned kicked in and beat the living hell out of us. For the verses of this song, Maynard spits a rapid-fire motormouth delivery through a megaphone about a wonderfully fantastic DMT/ecstacy-induced hallucination about aliens coming to the narrator at Area 51 to inform him that he is, in fact, "the chosen one...who will deliver the message, a message of hope to those who choose to hear it, a warning for those who do not." However, as the narrator attempts to tell the story, he is unable to recall what that famed message was. He claims he forgot his pen - and so, "goddamn, shit the bed." What an amazing song, especially live.

Flood came as a very pleasant surprise. Then, along with the 20 minutes of Wings For Marie and 10,000 Days, was a dazzling light show. I was a bit annoyed with some people who were more focused on the pretty colors than on the music, but it was certainly an impressive display that accompanied the powerful piece nicely.

I count that night's performance of Lateralus as one of my top 5 all-time concert performances. It was about a 20 minute version of the song, complete with a long jam in the middle (during the song's breakdown, for those of you familiar with it) with Melt Banana's talented percussionist and semi-talented guitarist. The final five minutes of the song are so surreal and intense that I found myself unable to control my body. They said goodnight and followed Lateralus with the closer, Vicarious, which was like a bland dessert after an unbelievable Death Row dinner. It's a very good song, but it was like the resolution after the climax.

Then I got in a stupid spat with a security guard. He was being an ass, but I admit I was being a bigger one. That's all I'm gonna say about it.

It was hard to stay awake for the long ride home, but I made it back as our driver and returned us to safety. Thank you to Tool for the gift of this performance. They really are our generation's Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin hybrid. The progressive nature of their music, light show, and nuanced live performance is intelligent, bold, risk-taking, and too massive for my brain to hold. So thank you, Tool. And thank you, reader, for surviving all the way to the end of this blog entry, hopefully without any injuries. Peace be with you...and also with you. (Sorry, that awful Catholic upbringing just won't ever die...you'd be amazed how much guilt a grandmother can bestow upon you...well, some of you...)