Channeling the spirits, Hey, if you still have your 1995 Big Mele ticket stub, maybe you'll be able to get in free to tomorrow night's Tool concert ...
calling down the demons
Tool casts its a musical shadow on
the islands, making its return after
a canceled gig long ago, but not forgottenBy Gary C. W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comOr maybe not.
This is how rumors and legends start: 1993 was the band's breakout year. The mysterious post-punk/metal L.A. band with the lowest of public profiles released a huge-selling debut album in "Undertow," and had just finished that summer's Lollapalooza tour.
After performing at the inaugural Big Mele in August 1993, Tool was set to make its triumphant return to the islands.
On the day of the '95 Mele, Tool canceled its headlining appearance at the last moment due to a personal emergency that had vocalist Maynard James Keenan returning to L.A., hence the apology in the form of a promise to honor the ticket stub. (With the exception of bassist Justin Chancellor, the band's original lineup is still intact after eight years, with Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey.)
Free show or not, fans know the operative word for Tool's music is "dark"; lyrics and instrumentation of a somber, occult, neo-tribal nature, with a churning, roiling sound relentless in its, um, "heavyosity." It's a sound the band has been able to successfully mine since '93, despite infrequent touring and a near-faceless presence on the contemporary music scene.
Where: Andrews Amphitheater, University of Hawai'i at Manoa Tool in concert
When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow; gates open at 6 p.m. There will be no opening act.
Admission: $37.50
Call: 956-7261
Note: No bottles, cans, alcoholic beverages, lawn chairs or coolers will be allowed. All carry-ins will be subject to search.
It would be three years before "Aenima" would be released as Tool's second album, and an unheard-of five years until this year's "Lateralus" debuted. Between those releases, Tool was embroiled in a legal battle with its record label. But Keenan was busy during that time, working in the well-received side band, A Perfect Circle.
To placate avid Tool fans, "Salival," a two-disc CD/DVD set featuring Jones' disturbing animated music videos for the band, as well as live and previously unreleased material, came out last year.The band's taut, muscular sound and controlled chaos is at its peak on "Lateralus," though the disc introduces songs that have a bit of light and celebration in them, i.e. "Parabol/Parabola" and the title track. Dynamic, extended tracks like "Disposition" and "Reflection" show how well the band sound-sculpts its music, to the point where, on the odd-metered "Triad," Tool sounds like this generation's version of progressive rock pioneers King Crimson.
Which may not be too far-fetched a comparison. The band worked with Crimson's engineer Bill Bottrill on "Lateralus," and had even toured with Robert Fripp's group on the mainland.
Check out this description that Carey gave to Pulse magazine in April about the song "Lateralus": "(It) was originally called '987.' It was a bass riff that Justin had: It is a bar of nine, a bar of eight and a bar of seven. We started talking about this, and Maynard said it had kind of a spiral-type feel, and we realized that 987 is the 12th step of the Fibonacci sequence, which is a mathematical sequence that spirals, like conch shells and sunflowers, are all made off that formula."
That will mean little to tomorrow night's moshers, but it's nice to know that Tool rocks with both force and intellect.
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