Tool is a trip. Alternative metal band gets immersive at Fresno’s Save Mart Center
In one sense, Tool is incomparable.
It is the darkest and most cerebral of the mainstream metal bands to emerge from the ’90s music scene (those of a certain age can still see the stop-motion video for “Sober” play in their mind’s eye).
It is led by an enigmatic singer who’s become an almost non-front man, and driven by a rhythm section that somehow pulls grooves out of the oddest of time signatures.
But watching the band’s immersive set at Fresno’s Save Mart Center on Monday, one could draw some parallels.
Like this one from a friend, seeing the band for the first time: “Tool are a dystopian jam band. Like if Grateful Dead came of age in the Reagan era.”
Or, if it replaced all the acid with meth, to quote another one-line review.
And there is a certain jam-band, prog-rock quality to a Tool concert.
On Monday night the band played just 11 songs over nearly two and a half hours, which was split into two parts with an intermission.
For comparison, Pearl Jam played double that many songs at its concert at the arena two years ago.
The music was accompanied by a dazzling array of visuals that slow-crawled across a giant video screen, or else undulated, or folded into themselves in patterns of sacred geometry in a way that felt immersive.
There were also lasers.
Lots of laser, shooting out into and through the audience
At moments — during the song “Invincible,” for example, as drummer Daney Carey played a large synthesizer behind his kit, flanked on sides by bassist Justin Chancellor and guitarist Adam Jones with singer Maynard James Keenan hiding in the shadows — Tool looks and feels like a proper prog-rock band.
Hints of Rush or Yes.
Other times, the individual band members seem secondary to the experience. Yes, they are musically impressive and intellectually it’s something to know that the soundscape is being created live and in real time.
But that’s also kind of missing the point, which Keenan made clear during the one moment he addressed the crowd during the night: to admonish those who felt the need to watch the concert through a cell phone screen. There was cursing.
“Stay with us,” Keenan said.
“Stay connected. Are you ready to take a journey.”
That’s a real jam-band thing to say.
Tool has four U.S. shows remaining on the tour. Three of them are in California — Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 in Los Angeles and Feb. 17 in Ontario — then Feb. 18 in Las Vegas. The tour continues in Europe on May 25 in Hanover, Germany.
Elder opens the show with doom metal
The opening act, Elder, played in similar fashion, minus the stage visuals.
There was also no banter from the Massachusetts four piece, just a quick, “We’re stoked to be here” and then 40 minutes (approximately three songs worth) of mostly instrumental fuzzed-out stoner rock (or is it doom metal?).
These were heavy jams.
The band played through a fire alarm, which didn’t seem to upset the concert at all, but set small lights flashing throughout the arena.
The band’s finale, “Halcyon,” ran a full 15 minutes and was a sonic treat.
Other random thoughts
The pirate T-shirt sellers were aggressive. Like standing-in-traffic-on-the-Highway-168-off-ramp aggressive. Cheap shirts or no, you gotta be safe, people.
There was an army of hot-dog sellers that swarmed outside the arena after the show. Seriously, dozens of them lined up.
It feels like Tool just played in Fresno, but it’s actually been four years. This was at least the sixth time the band has stopped through since the 1990s, including when it closed out the Wilson Theater in 1996.
Tool set list, Feb. 12, 2024, Save Mart Center Arena, Fresno
Fear Inoculum
Jambi
Rosetta Stoned
Pneuma
Intolerance
Descending
The Grudge
Intermission
Chocolate Chip Trip
Flood
Invincible
Stinkfist
