Taguchi and I drove up to see TOOL last night in Minneapolis. We ignored the evangelicals standing outside the Target Center singing for the redemption of our oh-so-Satanic souls.

ISIS, who opened, is basically Diet Tool. They have some airy, drony, odd-time songs that mostly put Taguchi to sleep (who was very tired). I don’t think he was bored by them–more than likely, they served as little lullabies for the tuckered-out fella to regroup for Tool. On the whole, ISIS is solid, but they seem to lack some punch somewhere.
Tool rocked, as expected. Maynard seemed to have an off-night, for the reason that he stopped singing in a couple of the early songs. He might have been ill a few nights before. Who knows? But Maynard certainly deserves some liberties. Adam Jones, Justin Chancellor, and Danny Carey held a musical seminar. One of the highlights involved a fast drum solo in the normally-quiet middle of “Schism.” “Forty-six & two” just rocked. DC tore up the drum solo at the end, but what did you expect?

The light show started out slow, and one wondered whether it was going to get going at all. Well, it progressively got going, and by the end, it was awesome. The white stage allowed graphics to paint themselves all over it, which was pretty cool. The laser show was nothing novel on the whole, as Pink Floyd had done all that for years. But novelty is not the issue here, Dude. Everyone was transfixed by the spectacle.

Maynard showed his usual dry sense of humor, taunting that “Kansas was louder” during the band’s onstage break–which prompted Minneapolis to deliver a proper retort. The Taguchinator and I were in agreement that it was one of the loudest crowds of which we had ever been part. They hit their crescendo during “Aenima,” singing their balls off to the whole song, basically.

As usual, Tool didn’t move around much. When your music is that complex, your musicianship alone is enough to rock big time. Maynard danced a little and did some strip-teases, but he sure as hell doesn’t need to run around like this douchebag.

We were on the road forever this weekend. So–TOOL–please come to Iowa. We’ll bring some friends. We promise. Love, Spanky “Not Worthy” McGee.

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