The art of noise

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This article was published 29/10/2023 (738 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a mass therapy session at the Canada Life Centre Sunday night.

Instead of psychiatrist’s couches, thousands of folding chairs were set up on the arena floor, but Tool’s special effects, intense groove and thought-provoking lyrics, performed by frontman Maynard James Keenan, nonetheless created a cathartic evening of escapism for Winnipeg metal fans who hadn’t seen the Los Angeles group since 2010.

Whether the crowd of 8,500 needed it or not, they received a musical shot of endorphins that comes from the sensory bombast Tool brings to the stage.

The quartet performed in front of a giant screen — larger than those used other arena concerts, which are already huge — that first revealed a skull, and then another head with facial muscles, resembling a cadaver from the notorious Body Worlds exhibition.

A river of lava slowly mutated into a red cityscape. The surrealistic artwork then zoomed out to reveal a blue eye, followed by an ocean shore — or was it a view of a steaming Earth from orbit? — and later a series of creepy scenes and monsters that were sure to get the crowd into a Halloween mood.

That was just the visuals.

While listeners at home can control the volume of Tool’s recorded music and engage with it in decibel doses of their choice, the alt-metal band’s material is more absorbed than heard when one experiences it live in a room, even if the room is a huge hockey arena.

Fear Inoculum, the title track to Tool’s 2019 album, reverberated though Canada Life Centre — and the ribs and spinal columns of those in attendance — when bassist Justin Chancellor, guitarist Adam Jones and percussionist Danny Carey began the song’s first fervent chords.

Keenan’s voice could barely be heard above the din of the guitars and drums during the song, in which Keenan sings about exhaling fear out of the body as if it were a contagion and blessing the immunity gained.

He wore a waistcoat and trousers along with a garish, spiky headdress and performing and gyrating from risers at the back of the stage beside Carey’s vast drum kit, with Jones and Chancellor in front providing the gut-rumbling power behind Tool’s sound.

It’s an odd presentation, suggesting the overall performance of the band is Tool’s top priority, not just Keenan’s charisma.

His voice did rise above Tool’s wall of sound during Pneuma, another 2019 cut, which opens with a riff that grabs you by the scruff of your collar.

“We are born / of one breath / one word,” he belted out, before a tremendous laser light show kicked in, doing what few arena concerts are able to do: connect the people farthest from the stage to the performers on it.

It flickered in time with an eerie keyboard solo from Jones, showing that a concert’s special effects can be part of the harmony of a song rather than dominating it.

Tool’s songs are insanely long jams lasting 10 minutes or longer; Jones wailed on the guitar for minutes amid a glow of red from stage spotlights during Descending.

He cranked up some amplifier feedback like a proper metal concert before diving into The Grudge from 2001 epic Lateralus, to cheers from the crowd.

After a 15-minute intermission that let everyone catch their breath, Carey kicked off the concert’s finale, tapping drumsticks on a gong before giving it good slam, the boom signalling to the crowd to prepare themselves in for another dose.

It was the beginning of Chocolate Chip Trip and a drum solo that was reminiscent of Rush’s Neil Peart for the variety of percussive sounds Carey created. The video screen didn’t miss a beat either showing an aerial shot of his fast-moving hands in a weird kaleidoscope.

Keenan joined the band at the front of the stage after Carey’s solo, and it was as close to an intimate acoustic moment a metal band can have.

Before the night’s closer, Forty Six & 2, he told the crowd they could pull out the cellphones, but the stage was so dark it was hard to see him, so good luck to the shutterbugs.

It was a powerful finale, with Keenan hollering about over-stimulation on an evening chock full of it, while Carey, Jones and Chancellor floored their musical jet engine one final time.

Paper notices taped to seats throughout Canada Life Centre advised ticketholders that the use of cellphone cameras was not welcome.

Tool, most notably frontman Keenan, join a growing list of artists, including Bob Dylan and Jack White who are barring cellphone cameras during performances to avoid the distracting glare of flashes.

It also means fans can focus on the concert rather than their neighbours’ lame cinematography skills — a distraction that annoys audiences and performers alike.

Steel Beans, the one-man blues-rock band of Jeremy DeBardi of Everett, Wash., rose to Instagram fame in 2022, and it was easy to see why on Sunday.

He played drums, guitar and sometimes keyboards — all at the same time, showing impressive dexterity — during his 30-minute opening set.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall