Tool

Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane QLD

Thursday, 20th February 2020

Support: Author & Punisher

The hippies, metalheads, general stoners and whoever damn else congregate en-masse tonight, mulling about amongst the merch stands and beer gardens of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. There is only one band in the entire world capable of bringing such a hodgepodge of disparate subcultures together into one happy family.

United by their love of the band tonight. United in their love of fucking Tool.



Author & Punisher aka Tristan Stone walks onto the stage and takes his place amongst the ominous machinery he created himself. Standing above the crowd, the lights awaken from their slumber under a sonic loop of feedback and distortion, before the machinery surrounding Tristan pumps itself over and over again. Each sound enfolds the crowd in the sweet caress so deep you feel every action onstage, reverberate into every fiber of your body and soul.

Maybe it’s the constant piston-like motion of the machinery, the way it all coalesces together as a whole, but whatever the case, Author & Punisher leaves the stage making you feel like you were just personally abused over and over again, and the only option you have left is to beg for more.

A black curtain encircles the stage before the band even takes the stage. A cheer reverberates throughout the venue as Danny Carey, Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor take their positions in the darkness before the now instantly recognisable notes of ‘Fear Inoculum’ begin and the venue becomes cloaked in the kind of images that would make Carl Jung blush. Maynard James Keenan soon follows, crooning over the majesty being woven on the stage by the entire band.

‘Aenema’ comes after this, with Keenan simply asking “Brissie” about the floods lately before throwing the crowd into an aching frenzy of banging bodies surrounded by the smell of weed, sweat and beer. It’s in this moment, when you realise that for the next two hours this band has you by the throat and they are never letting it go.

Every song after this is wall to wall bangers.

‘Parabol’ gives way to ‘Parabola’ and sees the frenzied ecstasy of the crowd reach breaking point as bodies fly and the light show helps everyone lucky enough to hear the quiet, seething rage of Keenan, reach a heightened state of existence. As if you could reach forward and suddenly touch your shadow self.

Fan-favourite from the new album, ‘7empest’ is played only the second time in history tonight, the band break you under the weight of poly-rhythmic intensity, as Keenan takes the stage and spits fire out of every word sung and the band match him pound for pound with their own hard-hitting guitar parts, and the beautiful drumming of Carey brings us all down into the depths of this song, until it feels like you’ve been swallowed whole. Just, fucking, wow.

The set tonight ends with ‘Stinkfist’ and for a brief moment, the no phone policy is lifted, which sees phones light up the venue in all directions, before Keenan grinds us into dust with his menacing vocals on the closest thing this band ever came to a hit single. The band expends it all in one final outpouring, bringing this event to a momentous and glorious close.

Maybe it’s the weed, maybe it’s the drinks consumed in copious amounts or maybe it’s the other substances I won’t name. But tonight Tool has proven once again why they are one of the biggest, most beloved bands in the world.

So take my advice, spark up a bowl of Tool live and experience what is the greatest high in music.

Reviewed by Kaydan Howison

Revisit our review of Tool‘s latest album Fear Inoculum right here

Photo Gallery courtesy of Gethin Hill (Gethin Hill Photography)

Please credit Wall of Sound and Gethin Hill if you repost.

Author & Punisher

TOOL

Tool – Fear Inoculum Australian Tour

with Author & Punisher

Saturday 22 February at Rod Laver Arena | Melbourne, VIC

All Ages ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

Sunday 23 February at Rod Laver Arena | Melbourne, VIC

All Ages ticketek.com.au | Ph: 132 849

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