Tool - Grant Park - August 8, 2009

After an entertaining, albeit underwhelming pair of headlining sets on Friday, prog-rock veterans Tool took to the stage Saturday to try to bring this year’s Lollapalooza up to par with previous years. And with a pair of boxer briefs and a whole lot of loud – it just may have happened.

“I smell marijuana. Don’t you know that’s illegal? You’re all under arrest,” the enigmatic mowhawked frontman Maynard James Keenan spouted out after starting off the set with a pummeling rendition of “Jambi.” He then made reference to the heat, the sweat, the dirt and announced that tonight, clothing was optional.

A few tracks later (including “Stinkfist,” “46 & 2” and “Schism”) Keenan made his way off stage while his band played on, only to return moments later stripped down to his skivvies. Although to some an expected stunt – he did the same a few weeks ago at All Points West – it still brought smiles to most of the faces in the crowd. The remainder of the set featured Keenan sporting only his black boxer-briefs.

While always being the center of attention, Keenan still stuck to his avoid-the-spotlight ways. Using the same stage setup from the 10,000 Days tour of 2007, Keenan spent the entire evening lurking in the shadows, seen mostly only as a dancing silhouette next to bruiser Danny Carey’s drum kit.

Luckily for us, his bobbing, back-bending dancing is something that just needs to be seen first-hand. The band’s stage setup includes four LED screens behind each of the members, which runs bizarre video footage as a backdrop. The artistic videos change from song to song, but the most memorable is the eruption of flames that start on cue with the opening notes of “Jambi.” From there on out, the backdrop s were a combination of footage from Tool’s music videos – “Schism,” for example – and other off-the-wall animations similar to that of the album art from Tool’s discography.

As for drummer Carey, he was perhaps the unsung hero of the evening, as his blasting work behind the kit is the heartbeat of Tool. His drum solo during “Lateralus” in the second half of the set was a highlight, as was guitarist Adam Jones’ roaring licks on “Rosetta Stoned.”

Keenan later elicited a few chuckles as he threw in a quick jab at the headliner on the other end of Grant Park, sarcastically noting the only bad part of tonight was having to miss the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “Unfortunate scheduling,” he quipped.

Having persevered through a rowdy set from Rise Against, the crowd was surprisingly subdued for most of the Tool show. Being perched near the intersection of the barricades to the right of the sound stage, there was only one initial surge right as the show started and from then on out, crowd-surfing and moshing was very limited.

Just before shutting it down for the evening, Keenan announced that his winery partner was in attendance, and that they both skipped a special event to spend the evening “with you filthy people.” And the filthy Lollapalooza patrons seemed happy to be spending the evening with him, too.

Keenan and company finished off the night without an encore, and instead left us with the biggest hit from 10,000 Days, “Vicarious.” There were chants for “one more song,” but much like Kings of Leon, the band had hit the end of their time slot and the night was over.

Photos, video and story by Shane Nyman

Read More:

• The Loop
• Music
• 2009
• lollapalooza
• tool

• Print
• E-mail
• 
• Related