Breathe In Union(dale) - TOOL @ Nassau Coliseum Sat.7.Oct

Those who know me well are aware of my preoccupation with music. It's something I need, a life force that flows seamlessly through my veins.

Then there's the story of those who love me. Those, while great in numbers all over this planet (look it up), know that I love almost all music. I'm worldly, open to any and all groups of organized sounds that stir the soul. Everything from the hardest face melting metal to the softest, most intricate life-affirming tones of Schubert and Bach. Those people (I like to refer to them as Nick-sciples) realize there is one particular musical energy running through this misery prison I call a body. Something that has helped inspire me in the past, that's been there during all the rough moments of my short life. That force is known on this earth only as "Tool".



Tool is an experience in terms of music. In high school I wasn't the coolest guy, (although according to the very hot girls randomly sending me that "7 years later myspace message"), apparently I was. Anyway, it was during these formative years that I was introduced to what is sometimes referred to as the "thinking man's metal". From then on, I've seen them live whenever possible, and eagerly awaited their album releases.

They record albums rarely, tour even less than that. It's an experience that is well worth the wait, and I had been looking forward to this concert for a long time now. Unfortunately, their only performances in the NY metropolitan area were in Camden NJ (good luck there), East Rutherford, and Nassau. I chose to make a shot for the Nassau show, as it seemed the easiest to get to. Of course I was alone, because I'm my own best friend, and I don't have a car or anything, so the trip via subway, LIRR, and bus was not appealing to say the least.

After a somewhat inconvenient transit, I finally get there, listening to tunes on my mp3 player on my way to the front gate. I don't go to concerts anywhere near as often as I used to, and since this was my favorite band, I stuck to my two cardinal rules of concert going. First, I do not listen to the music of the band on the day of the show. My second rule is quite simple yet very important. Do you remember the 1994 movie PCU? Jeremy Piven gives us all words to live by in that movie:

"What's this? You're
wearing the shirt of the band you're going to see? Don't be that
guy".

There were tons of those people there. So anyway, I get up to the gate, and the guy is like "What are those headphones attached to?". Ignoring my first impulse to blurt out "your mother's cunt!", I said "my mp3 player". Tool has a very strict no camera no recording devices of any kind policy. He then tells me to leave it in the car, to which I reply (with that "I'm about to cry" face), that I don't have a car and I came a long way to get here. After cordoning me off to the side while he went on to pat down the next 3,000 ticket holders, he finally relented, maybe after seeing that I was alone and looking increasingly pathetic as the minutes ticked by.

The show was the greatest. ISIS opened up for them, some band I never heard of, and didn't quite care to. I always thought Tool was very picky when it came to who supports them on the tour, but a similar sounding guitar distortion is apparently all that's sufficient now. I came in towards the end of their set, and Justin (bassist from Tool), was playing with them, so that was kind of cool. I think.

Tool opened with Stinkfist, a song containing a refreshing and loud opening riff when you haven't seen them in a while. At this point I was on a long beer line though, and missed it. This line was ridiculous, and I realized I'm now that guy going to an arena show by himself and buying beer. I hated that guy when I was 17, and thought he looked creepy. Anyway, while edging closer to strangers to create the illusion I came with a large groups of buds, I came across an old friend of mine from my Whitestone days. He's this kid I haven't seen in years and I was relieved to see someone decent I knew there. He's always on tour and doing amazing rock star things now, but it was just like old times. He graciously gave me a ride back to the ol' neighborhood afterwards where I ended up seeing a bunch of other people I haven't seen in a very long time. Scanning the crowd, we remarked to each other on the huge amount of hot girls there. Tool being an intellectual band, I posed the deep question: "Since we are at a Tool show, could these hot girls be of some kind of higher caliber, smarts-wise or spiritually?" No sooner had I uttered those words than some chick totally slipped on her own beer puddle in front of me. The answer? No, they're just girls from Long Island who happened to be there.

The stage during this tour is interesting, and I loved it. The band had a row of 7 or 8 foot screens lining the back of the stage. On these backgrounds, various videos and effects were displayed. This is par for the course with Tool, as video is usually a big part of the show. These screens however, weren't overly distracting this time, which to me showed a conscious change in direction for their live show. During their last tour to promote "Lateralus", while it was good, it had lead singer Maynard going away from his signature writhe-dancing and physical displays to only stand on a light box no more than a few feet square. Thankfully the intensity has returned, and he was back to his old ways, moving across the stage, very animated, shirtless and wearing a cowboy hat. Just like it used to be.

I was eagerly awaiting my favorite song on the new album, Jambi. This song literally makes tears develop in my eyes. It's beautiful, with a powerful opening (just like some of the girls there, oh!). A song rarely, if ever has done this to me. I went completely apeshit, smiling and rocking to and fro uncontrollably. Quite a sexy song, with an incredible chorus if you ask me. It was one of the songs I was most excited to see actually, because there's no chance of me hearing songs like "Prison Sex" or "Pushit" played live anymore. There was also this amazing laser show during the concert that went along with it. There was a moment where the combination of laser formation and the smoke machine, along with video in the back created this totally visually stunning cloud effect. It helped give you that flying feeling during some of the dreamier, soft interludes.

Whole point is, Tool rocks. And you probably don't rock very much. It was the best fucking concert I can say I've almost ever seen. Ever.

Set List

Stinkfist

The Pot

Forty Six & 2

Jambi

Schism

Lost Keys

Rosetta Stoned

Wings For Marie

10,000 Days

Lateralus

Vicarious

Ænema

Todays Musical Selection: Tool - 'Jambi'

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