Tool’s ability to keep fans waiting with bated breath is trademark.
Case and point? Last Thursday's sold-out show marked 4,062 days since the group released 10,000 Days – the band’s most recent offering. Yet, despite the 11-year fast of any new Tool material, fans were ready to feast after a seven-year absence of Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor as a unit in our city.
Keenan has kept busy in the more than decade-long stretch with both music and non-music related projects; however, the other members of the band have remained virtually unheard from musically, aside from Tool-related turn-ups. Justin Chancellor, Tool’s bassist since 1995, does have a lone bass credit for his work with Intronaut on 2010’s Valley of Smoke, but drummer Danny Carey and guitarist Adam Jones have mostly kept to themselves since the last Tool release in 2006.
With only a fleeting chance of hearing a new song from the alternative metal demigods, tickets remained in high demand and sold-out without any concern for concert promoters.
According to guitarist Adam Jones, any part of the new track “Descending” heard at the show Thursday night (possibly used to intro “Jambi”) is the song equivalent of what a movie trailer is to a feature film.
The band has been flirting the song with crowds for a couple of weeks, but “Descending” has never actually been played on the 2017 North American tour the way it is rumoured to shape up once recorded
Starting the evening with “The Grudge” off of 2001’s Lateralus it became apparent early to those in attendance that the often pristine sound that the band is known for was going to be challenged by the acoustics in the old hockey arena. Whether falling on the band's shoulders or perhaps their crew, Tool fans heard a brief blast of misplaced distortion during the opening track.
From the point of the mystery blast onward, however, Tool did a remarkable job of playing a tight set and navigating the tricky audio circumstances that Rogers Arena can present.
Continuing with more from 2001’s Lateralus, the four-piece went on to feature “Parabol” followed by “Parabola” and “Schism”. It was not until the band’s fifth song of the night did they venture from Lateralus and play the titular track from Tool's 1992 album Opiate.
Jones, Chancellor, Carey and Keenan each have a personal history or education in visual art and Thursday saw the visceral masterminds in top form for Tool’s 2017 North American Tour. The video backdrops for each of the 14 songs plus drum solo were elaborate in colour and profundity, as is often the case at a Tool show.
Despite much of Thursday’s material having been written in the George W Bush-era, the angst and outright exasperation Tool often incorporates was still impactful, and held just as much weight in a post-Obama 2017. Keenan has never publicly backed either major American political party, and has often been vocal in his disregard for any governing body that portrays itself as overly authoritarian. Therefore, it was not out of place to hear Tool remind its fan base to "question the majority" after an impressive drum solo by Carey Thursday night to kickstart the band’s second set.
Leading into “The Pot” from 2006’s 10,000 Days, Tool went on to remind us all of the opinion that governments put forth a set of rules, laws or guidelines not for the better interest of public concern (or safety) but to gain a greater political stronghold over its citizens. As Vancouver happily embraced the iconic anthem, this writer could not help but muse over the contradiction in philosophies given the several unnecessary ‘rules’ that Tool (as well as one of Keenan’s other projects, Puscifer) puts in place before every show.
Tool unapologetically dictates to fans and media alike that pictures or videos of the show can be grounds for removal. The band also goes so far as mandating that photographers (assigned to the show from various media outlets) sign away their rights to the pictures they take during Tool concerts, legally taking ownership of other artists’ photos.
The peculiar double standard aside, Tool played an impassioned set at Rogers Arena. For a singer that has been accused of having noticeable ‘on and off days’ on stage, Keenan (adorned in full riot gear) performed with every bit of emphatic sincerity one expects from the charismatic singer.
The return of Tool to Vancouver may not have come with any significant new material, however, few fans were heard leaving Rogers Arena disappointed. Security at the venue did note that a handful of people left early on in the set citing “sound quality” concerns, but, those willing to focus on the musicians and hear past the building’s limitations gained the reward of witnessing Tool mastery.
Keenan signed off with an “I’ll see you soon” before the band’s second last song of the night, “(-) Ions.” The Tool and A Perfect Circle singer’s use of ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ lent credence to the rumours of Keenan and founder Billy Howerdel’s intent of releasing and touring off of a third studio album of original material with APC (fourth studio album, total).
Sure enough, the tour was announced Monday, with A Perfect Circle hitting Pacific Coliseum on Nov. 30, 2017.
