Tool
Special Guests: Steel Beans
Venue: Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center
Date: 4th November 2023
Review By: Eric Wilt
Tool’s wide appeal has always been a mystery to me. Not because I think Tool is undeserving of their renown, but because, in a musical landscape dominated by catchy, formulaic songs with big hooks that gnaw into your brain like threadworms, Tool’s progressive-leaning, alternative metal is about as far from catchy as you can get. In spite of this, the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center was sold out for Saturday’s show. And unlike many metal shows I have been to, the Tool show was no sausage-fest, as I estimate at least 40% of the audience was female. All of this makes Tool unique in the metal world, but Tool fans are also unique, and those in attendance in Charleston were witness to an amazing display of artistry by a band at the top of their game.
The evening began at 7:35 with a one-man band called Steel Beans. The one man being Jeremy DeBardi, who came to fame thanks to a video he posted on Instagram. Debardi, who is 25% comedian and 75% musical act, wore what appeared to be a dog costume, complete with droopy ears, while simultaneously playing drums and guitar. As a drummer and singer, Debardi is passable at best, but it was his guitar playing that impressed me. He was able to play some pretty impressive solos with only one hand (and the help of his drumstick hand from time to time). For this reason, I gave him a two out of five because in every other way his act was intolerable 
(2 / 5)
At 8:35, Tool came out to resounding applause and began to lull the audience into a trance-like state with their hypnotic music and trippy visual imagery. Danny Carey’s monstrous drum set was the centerpiece of the stage that featured platforms to either side of him and a towering video screen behind the band. Singer Maynard James Keenan alternated between the two platforms, while only guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor stood at the front of the stage. Tool’s music uses repetition to mesmerize the audience, while the images on the video screen rotate through a Salvador Dalí nightmare of visual stimulation. The band’s laser-light show was worthy of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and worked with the music and visual imagery to create a hallucinatory effect within the audience.
The night kicked off with Fear Inoculum, the title track of Tool’s 2019 release. This was followed by a trio of 10,000 Days songs, Jambi, The Pot, and Rosetta Stoned. The band was on fire on this evening, and as much as the mohawked Keenan pleased with his ethereal vocals and mysterious aura, it was Carey, Jones, and Chancellor that really shined. Each instrumental section was an opportunity for the unit to give a masterclass in playing both together as well as excelling individually. None of the band members moved around much while playing, but Chancellor did sway with the music from time to time and would encourage the audience to roar even louder with their enthusiastic cheering. Next, Tool returned to their newest release for Pneuma and Descending before hitting the audience with a surprise of sorts. Actor and comedian Rory Scovell, who Keenan introduced as a friend who thought he was funny, took Jones’ guitar for an admirable rendition of Intolerance off Undertow. Jones then returned to the stage for Lateralus’ The Grudge, which was the final song of the first set.
The second set was dominated by Fear Inoculum tracks as it kicked off with Carey’s instrumental Chocolate Chip Trip followed by Culling Voices and Invincible. The crowd appeared to love the new songs as much as the old, but every new song the band played was one less classic that they wouldn’t be playing, so I was hoping for the set to end with a couple greatest hits. As there was only one song left, I had to be satisfied with things wrapping up with Stinkfist off of AEnima, and I was, but Tool did leave me wanting to hear a couple songs that they didn’t play. But if they only played greatest hits, it wouldn’t be a Tool show, and the show they put on that night was very memorable in its own right 
(4 / 5)
