February 10th, 2016

Tool is a band known for their live performances. The thought, design and execution of Tools live show has always been nearly perfect, and on a past Sunday night at the horribly named Smoothie King center they demonstrated again why they consistently sell out tour after tour. This time though, they weren’t the only big powerhouse on the bill, but we'll get to that shortly.

Opening the show was 3Teeth. You would think with a name like that they’d be straight out of the nu metal haydays, and while that assumption isn’t accurate, the music wasn’t some great secret waiting to be discovered. When I think of this band, the first thoughts are that vocally they sound like Ministry, while musically they make you think of Rammstein. All of this is true, but while they somewhat sound like these bands in one way or the other, they are far less interesting than either of them. For nearly thirty minutes they performed, but it was fairly obvious that the crowd was there for Tool, and even Primus a bit.

Having said that, it’s a shame Tool didn’t decide to just go with Primus as the lone opener. In all the countless times I've seen Tool at their own tours, never once have they had two openers, so it’s a bit puzzling why’d they have two when the band has the best opening act they’ve ever taken out on tour. Getting to the actual set though, Primus killed with the fifty minute or so set, and the crowd seemed warm to their performance. For a measly seven songs the band seemed tight, focused and ready to go. “Mud” droze the crowd into rocking out, while the finale of “Southbound” saw Danny and Justin from Tool come out and have an extended jam session with the San Fran boys. All in all, the set was fantastic, and left the crowd wanting more, which is a shame because we didn’t get it.

PRIMUS SETLIST: Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers, Too Many Puppies, Frizzle Fry, Jilly’s on Smack, My Name is Mud, Jerry was a Race Car Driver, Southbound Pachyderm

Tool however, had oodles of time to work with, and boy did they deliver. Opening with Zeppelin classic “no Quarter,” the band dove right into the set which for once featured tons of songs that hadn’t been played in a long time. The stage show, as expected, was massive, with screens dropping and moving into configurations quicker than I could figure what out where they were coming from. Also an awesome chunk of the set was devoted to the masterpiece that is LAteralus, which saw “The Grudge” and “Parabol(a)’ get showcased for the first time in over a decade. Hit after hit rolled through the air, finally coming to a conclusion with the even more rarely played “Sweat,”(!!!), and Stinkfist.

The band was extremely tight, which you would guess seeing as it was the last date of the tour, but they also seemed to be in high spirits. Maynard, coming out for the encore in some weird Tutu top hot outfit had the crowd enamored, while Jones’ and companies playing certainly hit all the right strides and notes. After everything was done, I’d have to say my 21st Tool was just as awesome as the others, if not better. Now if we could just get a new album and tour, that would be dope.

TOOL SETLIST: No Quarter, the Grudge, Parabol(a), Schism, Opiate, Aenima, Descending, Jambi, Forty-six and Two, Sweat, Stinkfist

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