Photos via Fourtheeye.net

Tool
Saturday October 31st 2015 Halloween
Monster Mash AZ
Tempe Beach Park
Tempe AZ USA

Setlist: 1:45:08

00 intro
01 No Quarter (Led Zeppelin)
02 The Grudge
03 Parabol
04 Parabola
05 Opiate
06 Schism
07 ∆nema
08 Descending
09 Jambi
10 Forty-Six & 2
11 drums and synth
12 Vicarious
13 Stinkfist

Taper: LeifH
Source: CSB (filter) > Sony PCM M10 @ 24/48 > Sony 16GB microSD card

My 7th time seeing Tool. This was their only show in 2015. I couldn’t pass up seeing two of my favorite bands, Tool and Primus, play on the same stage. Due to a limited budget and available time off, I only went for the one day, although the whole weekend was tempting. As it turned out, the Friday show on the 30th with Santana and Fogerty was cancelled about a week prior to the event, “due to unforseen circumstances.” The Sunday show featured Puscifer, who I had already bought tickets to see in December, plus Rob Zombie and the Deftones who mildy interest me, but also playing was Linkin Narc. I didn’t want a single cent of my earnings to go towards them. I wanted to go to the Marquee Theatre rehearsal on the 30th as well, but its hard to justify a $500 admission fee.

Halloween Saturday was sold out. It took longer than I expected though. The original schedule had two stages with slightly conflicting times, but only for the bands preceding Tool and Primus. The schedule was changed to include all bands on the same stage. The other days did not sell out, and they were really pushing ticket sales.

I got inside the gates just after they opened. People kept on coming in, and the costumes got better and better. It was about 80 degrees in the afternoon, and about 65 after dusk. I didn’t record the first two bands, but I did record Coheed & Cambria and Primus. When recording, I was against the left barrier, approximately 50′ from stage, as dead centre as you could get.

Tool came out dressed as Led Zeppelin. Adam a vest on and a double-neck Gibson SG (Jimmy Page). Maynard had a curly wig on, faded skinny jeans and an open blouse (Robert Plant). Danny had a brown wig, head band and a fake moustache (John Bonham). Justin also had a brown wig, a head band and vintage attire (John Paul Jones). They started off with No Quarter which hadn’t been played since 1998. Instantly worth going. “Does anyone remember Napster?” There was a short break and they came back. Maynard kept the Plant get-up on the whole show, and Danny kept his Bonham get-up on until his solo.

The Grudge (sans scream), which they hadn’t performed together since 2002. Parabol(a) was nice to see. Then they did the extended version of Opiate that I saw them do in Eugene 2014. This time it was a little more polished or written out. It seemed appropriate to hear ∆nema at this show. Descending (as seen on the setlist) was the snippet they played on the 2014 tour, but also more polished this time. Someone was aiming a laser pointer at the stage during this one, going over Maynard and Danny’s heads. That happened when I saw them in 2007 and Maynard left the stage without finishing the song. I didn’t see the laser again after that song. Descending sounds more like the name of a riff, but that could be a final title. Something went wrong with Adam’s talk box during the guitar solo in Jambi, so he did the solo without it. Justin’s bass sounded a lot cleaner to me than other times I’ve seen them. Danny’s kick drums had Adam’s bug art on them, which is on the show’s poster. The main video screen behind the band had some 3D illusions going on. Pretty cool stuff, man. Danny’s drums had some intense reverb on them during Vicarious.

Getting in the gates was easy. Getting out was a giant bottle neck. Awesome show, one of the best I’ve seen.