home reviews

Tool / Tomahawk - Denver, Pepsi Centre Sunday 21st July 2002 We managed to get really good seats in this massive venue just at the side of the stage, on the first tier and only 3 rows from the front. Even though this venue dwarfs our large venues, it was just so organised. A quick frisk with security before we entered the building, and then the ticket checkers simply scanned the barcode on the ticket with a tiny hand held device - a very slick operation with absolutely no delays. UK take note. Four men come on stage dressed in police officers uniforms - Tomahawk have entered the building. Mike Pattern the lead singer sung the first song through a gas mask, with a microphone attached inside the mask. The ex Faith No More lead is very active onstage with lots of very clever vocal acrobatics, while playing the keyboards. Backed up by Duane Denison (The Jesus Lizard) on guitar, Kevin Rutmanis (The Cows & The Melvins) on bass, and John Stanier (Helmet) on drums, they are a very powerful force indeed. They were booed a lot by meatheads in the audience, who were impatient for Tool to arrive, but as Mike so succinctly put it, "we were invited by Tool to play on this tour, so blame them." Part way through the set, Maynard, the singer from Tool, was seen hiding behind a stack of speakers at the side of the stage, with a huge rubber dildo hanging from his trousers, waving it up and down - maybe he was trying to make the band laugh, but Tomahawk would have their revenge later. Tool arrive and the crowd go nuts. Spread out in a square, Maynard the singer was standing on a drum riser the whole time, wearing a small loin-cloth type affair, and was painted blue from head to toe. They played for about 1.5 hours, with some great heavy tunes, and to a constant backdrop of strange video projections that seemed to focus on the body and strange humanoid beings. Introducing '4 Degrees' Maynard said that the song was like every other song, and was about ass sex. Later Mike Pattern sneaked up from behind the stage and rammed the huge rubber dildo, the same one that Maynard had been taunting Tomahawk with, straight down the back of his pants, simulating, funnily enough, ass sex. These bands have been on tour too long! At the end the band embraced each other in a group hug, and it was only then that you realised how small Maynard is - he must be less than 5' 3" for sure. Two extremely powerful bands, made me happy that I'd made the effort. Nice. skippy Tool set-list: Sober / 4 Degrees / The Grudge / Stinkfist / 46 & Two / Schism / Parabol / Parabola / Eon Blue Apocalypse / The Patient / Aenima encore: Disposition / Reflection / Triad / Lateralus

previous * next