LIVE REVIEW: Tool @ Resorts World Arena, Birmingham
If you were passing through Birmingham International on a Thursday night, you’d have no idea that proggy post-metal foursome TOOL were in town at the neighbouring Resorts World Arena. There’s young couples dressed to the nines at the bar; there’s denim-clad dads and copycat children at the merch desks; and there’s old-school grannies grooving their way to their seats. It’s not until the Californian’s iconic heptagram rises to the stage’s night sky as the lights go down that it’s abundantly clear it’s time to worship at the altar of messrs Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, and Justin Chancellor.
Until then though, fellow Californian’s NIGHT VERSES slip on stage as subtly as the soundscapes they create sound. Unlike the headliners to come, the trio of guitarist Nick DePirro, bassist Reilly Herrera, and drummer Aric Improta refuse to dabble in audiovisual psychedelics, staying in their same positions from opener Arrival all the way until closer No. 0 like professional stuck-in-the-mud players.
If it wasn’t for the incendiary theatrics of Improta — who’s time in FEVER 333 with livewire frontman Jason Aalon Butler has clearly paid off —you’d be forgiven for simply believing you’d been submerged into a pool of glimmering post-prog art-rock. It’s not that NIGHT VERSES aren’t captivating — their musical chemistry is contagious as they glide through dexterous rhythmic workouts with minimal effort, as if they’ve barely broke a sweat —, it’s simply that they fail to fill a stage built for bombast and pomp.
If you’ve been plugged into NIGHT VERSES for a while, you’ll find no deep cuts as they focus on this year’s Every Sound Has A Color In The Valley of Night. It’s these cuts, over 2018’s From The Gallery Of Sleep, that shine brightest: 8 Gates Of Pleasure’s post-metal heart beats with life thanks to its story-driven voice tracks, whilst Karma Wheel roars with a Tyrannosaurus-sized riff. It’s just a shame they don’t see off their set with the Chancellor-guesting Seance — it could’ve been just the trick to lift the support slot’s level up a notch.
Rating: 7/10
Unlike NIGHT VERSES, TOOL need not worry about holding anybody’s attention. Despite being an entirely-seated show, the 13,000 or so in attendance stand to attention like soldiers on the frontline as soon as the lights go down, and Carey, Chancellor, Jones, and Keenan take to the stage. Opener Jambi’s throbbing riffs bubble and boil up like a witch’s cauldron, as Keenan stalks the upper decks of their two-tier stage set-up like a mischievous imp doing the devil’s business, before Chancellor’s groove-laden bass delays send their mind-altering music into overdrive, coalescing with the psychedelic visuals spread out across a stage-wide screen.Just one song in and TOOL have you eating out the palm of their hands.
Draped across every other seat is a signpost to stay away from your screens, unless you fancy an early night. Before TOOL take you on a hallucinogenic journey through space and time, Keenan takes to the mic for just one of two speeches. Egging on the crowd to be “less scouse, and more brummie” and cheer louder as he greets them, he then says it’s time to undertake a journey with them, and to stay off our phones – “if you can’t stay away from your phone for two hours, then you’ve got a problem” – and if we’re good, we’ll get to film the final song.
With the ground rules read out, TOOL dive into the deep blue pool of the titular track from 2019’s comeback album, Fear Inoculum. It’s the album their nearly 2-hour, 11-song set is built around, dropping a cut ritualistically every other song. It’s testament to TOOL’s musicianship that they can play just three songs – Fear Inoculum, Rosetta Stoned, and Pneuma – in thirty minutes, and not a single soul is sat back down. It says something to the worship TOOL receives from its audience that so many of their staples — Ænema, Forty Six & 2, Schism, The Pot to name a few — are missing tonight, yet every step through their catalogue is mesmerising and worthy of inclusion.
Intolerance has the crowd buzzing along word-for-word like bees in a hive, as Keenan stomps across his mini-stages with the sheer force of an immovable object; the 13-minute monolith Descending drifts into a dreamy world of wonder that see’s audience members swaying to and fro, tapping out Carey’s percussion on their chests, and getting lost in its labyrinthic rhythms; and the seismic chorus of The Grudge brings act one to a close in climatic fashion.
Following a 12-minute intermission – where many spend it filling up their pints – it’s time for Carey’s spotlight-stealing super-solo as Chocolate Chip Trip takes on a new life, switching into a maze of modular synths. The lamest confetti cannon explosion you’ll ever witness, like a balloon whizzing away its helium, celebrates the culmination of Flood, before Invincible makes you feel exactly that.
Having earned Keenan’s approval, the arena becomes a sea of shiny screens, thousands capturing segments of the all-conquering closer Stinkfist. It’s the explosive end to the night – like the New Years Eve fireworks – that crowns yet another set that suggests TOOL are an otherworldly being capable of creating magic out of nothing every time they step on stage.
Rating: 9/10
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