Echo
On October 21, Tool unveiled its Mulholland Drive to OZZfest’s Corky Romano, its bid to convert Kemper Arena into the Kemper Museum. Pairing each selection with riveting original images, which changed dramatically during the songs’ frequent crescendos, Tool created a spectacle that closely interacted with its music rather than serving as a flashy distraction.
Sometimes it was easy to forget there was a band standing under the two massive screens that broadcast headless figures, spirits with demonic glowing eyes and eerily distressed nudes. Tool’s performers were willfully removed from it all, with singer Maynard James Keenan hovering in the shadows around a third, smaller screen throughout the entire show. He gradually disrobed to his briefs, but because he never strolled to the front of the stage seeking applause, this seemed less like a plea for attention and more like a way of getting comfortable. And it seemed to work — his vocals, which occasionally communicate detachment on record, seemed more passionate, vulnerable and real.
Tool altered several tunes significantly, turning the churning “Pushit” into a crawl-paced dirge and prolonging the climax of “Stinkfist” with a turbulent bridge. Muscular versions of the labyrinthine epics “Aenima” and “Schism” provided the evening’s musical highlights, but the band kept the program consistently interesting with its segues, which were intriguing instrumental meanderings rather than stage banter.
Along the same lines, Tool filled the space between the formal set and the encore (usually a span offering equal parts frustration and boredom) with jaw-dropping acrobatics from two contortionists clad in skintight silver bodysuits. These limber daredevils, who resembled the vaguely humanoid creatures depicted in several of the band’s videos, curled their bodies into inverted U shapes while wagging their heads rhythmically between their legs, then hung inert by their feet above the stage for the entirety of Tool’s lengthy return-to-stage number. Though logic would have them listless from the resultant head rush, these performance artists showed shocking resilience, swaying violently to the rhythms, embracing and eventually righting themselves.
