TORONTO - Los Angeles alternative prog-metal band Tool dazzled a near sold-out crowd Wednesday night at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre.
Unfortunately, starting 45 minutes after the originally scheduled time could've resulted in a new moniker: Late.
Nonetheless, with no new album to work with and 2011 being the year it could arrive, the band led by the enigmatic, Travis Bickle-looking vocalist Maynard James Keenan showed their admired chops for 9 songs (10 if you count Lost Keys) over the course of roughly 100 minutes.
Needless to say, brevity has never been their strength.
What has been their biggest asset though is a workman's like approach to their winding, intricate songs touching equally on '70s progressive rock with menacing metal foundations. And with the synergy between drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor, Tool often came off like the younger but feisty brother of Rush.
Opening with the dark, heavy yet at times meandering Jambi from 2006's album 10,000 Days, Keenan and company settled in for a set of songs the rabid fans eagerly awaited. This despite the fact an authoritative fan site - perhaps hoping for a vastly different set from 2007 - is selling a t-shirt with 2009's setlist on the back and "I went to a Tool gig and all I got was this lame setlist" on the front.
"Holy s--- there that's a lot of Canadians," Keenan said. "It's pretty much all of you."
Although content to stay near the rear of the stage as he often does and just his silhouette visible, Keenan's pipes were in great shape during the deliberate, plodding but groove-riddled Stinkfist. He was hard pressed to find his voice in the mix during Forty-Six & 2 as rather bizarre imagery appeared on the video wall behind them with a fetus inside a skull.
After oddly mentioning that Stephen Hawking was in the audience, Keenan let Carey, Jones and Chancellor do the grunt work for Schism. Here Carey's effective fills and rampant solo pieces fit quite nicely with Jones' thick slabs of prog-metal.
Perhaps if there's one knock against Tool, it could be they are not showmen in terms of working the stage. Usually with heads down and hardly ever venturing from their standard positions, Tool are all business when performing.
Thankfully, from the time the lengthy Rosetta Stoned began, Tool let the green lasers shooting out into the crowd and equally weird but alluring visuals (including the early video game Asteroids) serve as a perfect quasi-Floydian backdrop to what was played.
As the radio-unfriendly opuses continued, Tool brought the main set to a close with Aenema as fans pumped their fists throughout the initially up-tempo but eventually methodical track.
Standing side by side before the encore began, Tool brought out an additional drum kit during Lateralus so drummer Chris Rites of local act Crystal Castles could sit in before concluding with Vicarious.
