Al Powers for T-Mobile Arena
Bassist Justin Chancellor, foreground, plays as Maynard James Keenan sings Sunday during Tool’s concert at T-Mobile Arena. The Las Vegas show was the last stop on the “Tool Winter Tour 2024.”
Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Maynard James Keenan wasn’t feeling good. He admitted as much Sunday to the audience at the comfortably packed T-Mobile Arena, the final stop on the “Tool Winter Tour 2024.”
If Keenan wasn’t feeling good though, the crowd sure was throughout the night of experimental alternative metal songs and eye-catching visual displays the veteran band provided.
Tool kicked the night off with “Fear Inoculum,” the title track from the band’s 2019 album. Behind the four members of the band — bassist Justin Chancellor, Adam Jones on guitar, drummer Danny Carey and Keenan — floor-to-ceiling visuals of pouring lava devolved into a cellular membrane.
It was at “Fear Inoculum’s” end that an apologetic Keenan told the audience he was sick. It didn’t stop him from delivering a strong performance, mostly in dim lighting from risers to the left and right of Carey’s drum set, his usual practice. The setup makes clear that the nearly 60-year-old Keenan is Tool’s lead singer, not a frontman.
After restating the band’s strict prohibition against cellphone recordings of the concert — “don’t be a crack whore, put your phones away” — Keenan and the band launched into a rendition of “Jambi,” a cut from “10,000 Days,” Tool’s fourth studio album, released in 2006. Nick DeSalvo, vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist with Elder, the concert’s opening act, joined in for the song.
“Jambi” gave way to “Rosetta Stoned,” another cut from “10,000 Days.”
Three songs filled the remainder of the pre-intermission beginning with “Pneuma” followed by “Descending,” which featured a backing track of ancient sounds and included striking visuals of pyramids and scarlet smoke. They gave way to an extended version of “Schism,” the opening chords of which set the audience into a frenzy. The song, the first release off Tool’s fan-favorite album “Lateralus,” was highlighted by the original 2002 music video displayed on massive monitors behind the stage.
Carey, who had shed a Kansas basketball jersey he was wearing in favor of a skin suit depicting human muscles — similar to Colossal Titan from the anime franchise “Attack on Titan” — opened the second half of the concert with a gong solo that morphed into “Chocolate Chip Trip.” It was during that “Fear Inoculum” song that Tool’s signature “heptagram” descended from the rafters, again igniting the audience.
Deserving of a shout-out here is Carey, who all night easily managed the complex, mathematical percussion that carries most Tool songs. He displays an ability to both make a statement and keep the beat on controlled yet chaotic tempos that fill Tool’s catalog of songs.
Finishing out the second half of the set were three songs: “Culling Voices,” another track off of “Fear Inoculum,” during which rose gold confetti rained down on the floor; then “Invincible,” the emotional, melodic tale of war and loss.
Before the finale — “Stinkfist,” a 1996 track often included among the top heavy metal releases of that decade — Keenan announced that the cellphone ban was being waived but admonished the crowd not to use flash or lighting features lest they wanted to be kicked in an anatomically sensitive area.
The setlist wasn’t lengthy — 10 songs in all, spread over about two hours interrupted by the short 12-minute intermission — but the music and accompanying visuals provided the theatrical experience Tool fans have come to expect.
— Anthony Stephens is a contributor to the Sun.
