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TOOL: PIERCING ALL SENSES

Dreams sometimes are real, rarely these are this beautiful.
09 mei 2002, Oosterpoort, Groningen (NL)

Tekst: Sven Schlijper

Publicatiedatum: 27 mei 2002

Last year, following the release of the startling opus ‘Lateralus’, TOOL graced Europe with its pre-seminal tour 2001 combining headline gigs and festival spots. These shows, prior to the full-blown Lateralus World Tour, offered me an opportunity to check this amazing outfit out at four occasions. A short recap. At the instantly sold out 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands, TOOL kicked off this tour. A setlist combining both old and new favorites was played with jaw dropping precision. This is not to say is was a performance of a band slavishly following the album, but there was little to no room for inspired side stepping or improvisation. The show at the hangar called Philipshalle in Dusseldorf, Germany, was quite the same, except for the slight change of setlist with the addition of ‘Eulogy’. The festival gig at Pinkpop in the intimate darkness of the small 3FM tent was superb. In an hour long set TOOL amazed a massive audience and even in this short cut set, the balance between recent material and the more well known tracks was spot on. Only the daylight feature at Werchter missed the needed atmosphere. Apart from the band and its sound, experiencing TOOL live is all about the visuals, projected on 2 screens behind and above the band. It has to be seen to be able to relate to this, because words fall short to describe the beautiful synergy between the music and its counterpart in the imagery.

After having taken the tour to the US, Japan and Australia, with opening acts like The Melvins, King Crimson and Tricky, disappointment hit me at first when it was announced TOOL would co-headline this year’s European leg of the metal festival Ozzfest. Yours truly was hoping for yet another headline show at a normal venue. Frenzy struck when faith turned my way as news broke on the gig in De Oosterpoort in Groningen. Seeing TOOL in a venue of around 1.500 capacity was a dream coming true and excitement rose to a maximum even when the tickets sold out virtually in no time. Off to Groningen it was then, on Ascension Day. A group of friends gathered mainly from the south of Holland (Limburg), but also Ghent, Belgium was present. Arriving at the venue it was clear that TOOL tries very hard to maintain a certain high profile level of mysticism and mythology by not allowing any form of audio or video recording nor photography. Thus security was insanely tight. Ridiculous was the non-allowance of bags into the venue, resulting in strict appliance of this rule when my girlfriend was forced to surrender her very small bag containing nothing more than a pack of cigarettes and some cash. Another typical issue was the pricing. With ticket prices being well above average at 35 euro, fans were basically ripped off again and once more with prices of 28 euro for a standard tour shirt and even 80 euro for a worker shirt. Don’t get me wrong, I am not cheap and did buy the damn shirt, but it does leave a very weird taste in my mouth.

UK band Pablo opened, but apart from a rather amazing drummer a ‘fuck off’ would describe the feelings towards their acoustic pollution even too flattering. After some waiting TOOL hit the stage at exactly 21.30-h. And did it hit hard! Sound pressure level was at a continuous 110+ dB, so I saw at their meter from my perfect seated position, dead center, rear of mixing board. Stinkfist followed the kick off by The Grudge. The second track of the show presented the first and biggest surprise; a few extra and new lines of lyrics and ad-lib instrumentation in the middle of the song elongated it! This night, seeing yet another band play a show later on in their tour, TOOL was to play free, inspired. Surprising were the inclusion of 4 Degrees and H., while Adam’s end guitar lick to the stunning pair Disposition/Reflection seemed to last forever, lulling the packed crowd into a hypnotic slumber. Amazing too was the opener of the encores, a jammy version of Triad with an inhumanely in-sync sudden end of all the band parties’ play. Lateralis again closed the show and remains my favorite for this place in the set.

Judging from reviews found on a TOOL fan site, a lot of people didn’t think too much of this new TOOL. I just can’t be any different than to disagree completely. This time around TOOL did have its occasional glitch in timing or playing, but the altered arrangements totally made up for this. TOOL indeed showed a human(e) side, expressed dramatically at the end of the show with an emotive group hug. Luckily there is no label other than “TOOL rock” to put onto this brand of music. Music that is highly emotional, multidimensional and at times too much to comprehend all in one instance, let alone with the addition of the accompanying visuals (now different from last years and much more focussed on geometric shapes known from kaleidoscopes). TOOL at De Oosterpoort was a two-hour dream come true, a dream with ears and eyes wide open, a dream with an open heart. Dreams sometimes are real, rarely these are this beautiful!

http://www.kindamuzik.net/live/tool/tool-piercing-all-senses/1572/
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