The Chickens Concert Series #9: Tool ... No you're a tool!

Definitely an interesting concert. The tour website is here . It was more experimental/progressive than I was expecting but still awesome. The light show was trippy. The stage had an interesting setup with Keenen in the shadows in the back next to the drummer (he feels more comfortable that way). They had large screens playing videos (I hear they have it set up so that the videos play randomly so that no two shows are the same). And for one song they had a kid from the Make-a-Wish foundation on playing guitar (which I thought was very nice of them-metal guys are such softies on the inside). The Wikipedia article about them is pretty impressive. I will now filter out the interesting tidbits from said article and feed them to you coloured with my own commentary. So there.

Stats:

Tool was formed in 1990 in LA. The band consists of Danny Carey (drummer), Justin Chancellor (base), Adam Jones (guitar), and Maynard James Keenen (vocals).

Fun Facts/Musings Part 1: Damn the Crazy Religion Man

In 1993 during their Undertow tour, Tool was scheduled to play the Garden Pavilion in Hollywood. But they found out at the last minute that the Garden Pavilion is owned by the Church of Scientology. Maynard spent most of the show baa-ing like a sheep at the audience. This is, on the one hand, hilariously awesome! Learning that made me laugh until I stopped. But on the other hand it sucks for the people who just wanted to see the show. I mean, isn't it a little hypocritical of Tool to berate a group of their fans who just wanted to see them play when they themselves were playing there (if ignorance of the venue owner was their excuse I don't see why they couldn't cut their fans the same slack). Anyway, officially the band felt Scientology clashed with "the band's ethics about how a person should not follow a belief system that constricts their development as a human being". Neat. Hey you know, it kind of reminds me of that time Ashley MacIsaac played that concert where he did nothing but rant and swear at the audience for 20 minutes (Dec.31/99 in Halifax). He said it was verbal irony (Why do people always misunderstand irony when it is couched in offensive or racist satire!? Stupid %$#% literal #^&%@* jerks!). So these two cases are different because MacIsaac is intentionally using shock tactics as part of his whole thing that he has going, while Tool was voicing their opinion of a bizarre cult come disturbing pseudo-religion. But, in the end, the result is the same.

Fun Facts/Musings Part 2: Challenging the Norms

Tool has been plagued by censorship for much of their career, both for their lyrics and videos which are both often challenging and/or disturbing. Especially by that fount of cultural acceptance, MTV (insert ominous cackling here). So that's socially relevant commentary and imagery on important and difficult issues - zero; reality TV and vacuous teenage hoes - 10,000.

Some History for the Kids:

Tool dealt with multiple legal battles in the late 90's. Suits and counter-suits with their record label and ex-manager. During the delays that this prompted the band members dispersed to other projects for a while (though they didn't break up). Maynard founded A Perfect Circle. I miss them, they haven't officially disbanded or anything but they have been "working on other projects" since 2006. Oh well.

Since 2000, Tool has released 2 albums: Lateralis and 10,000 Days. At the height of the Napster controversy Tool announced the release of a fake album called Systema Encéphale and a fake track list to go with it. Needless to say Tool frowns on file sharing. Anyway, later they released Lateralis which featured, among other things, extremely long songs (they even had a 10 minute music video). After that Maynard kept up with a Perfect Circle and toured with them until the 10,000 Days tour. Whew! What a sordid little tale they have!

Compare and Contrast:

The 10,000 Days album won a Grammy for best art in February 2007 but, they lost to Wolfmother for best hard rock performance. Hmmmm...interesting reflection of Grammy biases or simple Boo-urns? You be the judge.

Artist: Tool
Album: 10,000 Days
Title: Vicarious

Artist: Wolfmother
Album: Wolfmother
Title: Woman

p.s. Here is a Dil's review of the concert. Definite tool fan!