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Tool live in 2024

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Forgive me father, for it has been six months since my last gig.

To be fair, my last gig was The Darkness and they played badly and we ended up next to some idiots in the crowd, so we left well before the end. A week or so before that was My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost at the Shepherds Bush Empire, which was superb! Tool should have been the second gig of the year, but we failed to make it to Myrkur.

I’ve been to the O2 Arena multiple times, but this was only my second time in the Bourne Leisure box - this is one of the perks of working for Haven. The previous time was for the SugarBabes and the sound wasn’t great. Tonight, support came from Night Verses, an American instrumental prog band. When they hit the stage the sound was excellent from the off. I find purely instrumental bands get boring after a while, and although these guys played well, I was glad they didn’t play any longer.

I first saw Tool at the Download Festival in 2003 and I wasn’t a fan then, so didn’t really get what the fuss was about. I re-explored prog rock a few years ago and got into them in a massive way. Then Fear Inoculum came out and I properly fell in love with them - yes, I parted with stupid amounts of money to get the CD as that was the only way!

Mobile phones were banned as the band wanted the audience to be fully immersed in the experience. As a band they’re extremely tight and make a hell of a rich sound for just three instruments and vocals. The songs from Fear Inoculum stood out amongst the older tracks. Unfortunately they didn’t play Stinkfist, as they have on other dates on this tour.


The visuals were as stunning as the sound. It was like seeing Pink Floyd, but on overdrive. Everything was in rich colours and the shapes ranged from skulls and impressions of babies in the womb to indeterminate shapes.

Following the interval, which featured a twelve minute countdown timer, the drummer did a solo which must have gone on for ten minutes and included a section with an unknown, to me at least, electronic device he manipulated somehow and then drummed along with resulting in layers upon layers of sound.

The band finally left the stage after more than two hours of music, and I left exhilarated and with some faith in live music restored.

Comments

  1. Andy Balaam22 August 2024 at 20:35

    I went to the same gig! It was an amazing experience. Probably the best gig I've ever been to.

    ReplyDelete

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