2008 Woodie Awards
Tool Plays at L.A.'s Biggest Venue
Tool makes a great showing at The Staples Center last Thursday.
Daniel Scarpa
Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Ever since their 1993 debut album "Undertow," and subsequent radio hit "Sober," Tool has been a staple in rock, known for their innovation and remarkable live shows. Thirteen years, three more albums, a Grammy award, and a number one record later, not much has changed. They still put on
unbelievable live shows, and Thursday night's performance at the Staples Center in Los Angeles was no exception.
Tool is going on it's first tour in four years, and their fans are very excited. It is almost unbelievable what one must go through to get tickets. My friend and I got up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, were third in a line that we stood in for three hours, and got the best tickets available- Third row from the top of the arena. Were I at a Laker game, the seven-footers on the floor would have looked like ants.
Prior to Tool hitting the stage, an electronica/metal band called Isis played. It was at this point that I decided I needed a $10 beer. Isis attempted to combine several styles of music, all while playing marathon-length breakdowns and extremely long buildups that only led to disappointing crescendos. Thank God they only played for half an hour, because who knows how many $10 beers I would have needed to get through it.
Sometime around 9:00, after 45 minutes of build-up and anticipation, Tool took the stage and launched into "Stinkfist," the opening track to their Grammy-winning 1996 album, "Ænima." What originally looked like a minimalist stage, plain white with the amplifiers and heavy equipment hidden, lit up spectacularly. The stage itself was actually a TV screen, projecting images throughout the show which included everything from original artwork, to clips from the band's infamous claymation music videos, all of which are done by guitarist Adam Jones.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist, and Jones' childhood friend, Tom Morello, called the 1993 MTV debut of Sober "the creepiest five minutes in MTV history." It was at this point that I grew to appreciate my nosebleed seat, because I was seeing something people on the floor were missing out on.
unbelievable live shows, and Thursday night's performance at the Staples Center in Los Angeles was no exception.
Tool is going on it's first tour in four years, and their fans are very excited. It is almost unbelievable what one must go through to get tickets. My friend and I got up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, were third in a line that we stood in for three hours, and got the best tickets available- Third row from the top of the arena. Were I at a Laker game, the seven-footers on the floor would have looked like ants.
Prior to Tool hitting the stage, an electronica/metal band called Isis played. It was at this point that I decided I needed a $10 beer. Isis attempted to combine several styles of music, all while playing marathon-length breakdowns and extremely long buildups that only led to disappointing crescendos. Thank God they only played for half an hour, because who knows how many $10 beers I would have needed to get through it.
Sometime around 9:00, after 45 minutes of build-up and anticipation, Tool took the stage and launched into "Stinkfist," the opening track to their Grammy-winning 1996 album, "Ænima." What originally looked like a minimalist stage, plain white with the amplifiers and heavy equipment hidden, lit up spectacularly. The stage itself was actually a TV screen, projecting images throughout the show which included everything from original artwork, to clips from the band's infamous claymation music videos, all of which are done by guitarist Adam Jones.
Rage Against the Machine guitarist, and Jones' childhood friend, Tom Morello, called the 1993 MTV debut of Sober "the creepiest five minutes in MTV history." It was at this point that I grew to appreciate my nosebleed seat, because I was seeing something people on the floor were missing out on.
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