Tool Concert - London

Earlier this week, I went to see the band Tool at the Hammersmith Apollo (the second of two London shows, on June 14, 2006). The show was one of the best rock concerts I have seen in years -- certainly one of the all-time best that I have seen. I think any rock music concert is a real challenge to deal with huge obstacles of audience expectations, bad sound in acoustically challenged spaces, the band being tired and worn down on the road, and the like. This night, the band negotiated the space admirably, and things came together with rare grace. My seat was a bit far from the stage, high in the upper balcony. But the acoustics were largely good, apart from some very low electronic or synthesized bass notes in two or three short places in the show, which masked out the rest into indistinguishable mush!

The drummer Danny Carey particularly amazed me. I read that another musician had called him "the Billy Cobham of his generation" and I think its an apt comparison of his power and grace. He plays the inventive Mandalla Drum, which really takes electronic percussion up a notch in terms of its flexibility and expressiveness:

http://synesthesiacorp.com/home.html

Tool played a great set, and stretched out on some well known compositions. On Schism, the band added a double-tempo middle section that was amazing. From here, I really settled into deep listening of the middle of their set. One of my favorite aspects of Tool's music is the way that they subtley dispense with traditional verse-chorus song structures, which are the coffin of rock music. Their songs are more like taking a long journey through darkness and light, circling and revisiting themes, but always moving to the future. Lateralus is an excellent example. I appreciate how the band plays on-stage in half darkness and lets the power of the music and abstract film images take you ... "Spiral out, keep going."

SETLIST --Stinkfist,The Pot, Forty Six & 2, Jambi, Schism, Right In Two, Rosetta Stoned, Sober, Lateralus, Vicarious, Ænema.

Amazing!