LIVE REVIEW: TOOL at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario on November 21, 2023
With no prior context to or experience with TOOL concerts, I was excited to see how the prolific prog-metal band’s performance would play out, and surely enough, I was pleasantly surprised and far from disappointed.
The night started off with the insanely talented Steel Beans, a musician that, prior to opening for TOOL, I had no knowledge of. For any concert I go to, if I’ve never heard of or seen the opener before, I enjoy going in blind so I can be taken by surprise; Steel Beans Blew. Me. Away. So much so that I paused taking photos for a minute to watch him play four instruments through my eyes, not the lens, so that I’d be sure I was seeing him correctly.
Steel Beans encompasses the saying “one-man-band”, by playing the guitar, drums, keyboard and singing all simultaneously with extreme finesse and timeliness. My jaw was on the floor during the entire set, and even when he’d left the stage, I still couldn’t understand what I had seen. Singing and playing the guitar at the same time is difficult as it is, but add soloing and drumming into the mix, and it’s now virtually impossible. Steel Beans was simply majestic, and I’ll be the first to grab tickets next time he goes on tour.
TOOL’s stage had been set by their epic opener and everyone was prepared for the band to go all out in grandiosity. Suffice to say, they did not let us down. Opening the night with “Fear Inoculum”, band members revealed themselves gradually throughout the song. This made their entrance tense and exciting, especially that of frontman Maynard James Keenan – who sparingly appeared under the spotlight. Throughout the night, Keenan remained a mystical silhouette affront hallucinatory backgrounds, on high platforms beside drummer Danny Carey, moving between stage right and left, adding to the band’s ethereality and mystery. The setup on the stage was breathtakingly gorgeous, and all members of the band played the part remarkably.
Watching and listening to TOOL live was like a psychedelic trip, with beautiful visuals projected behind the band complimenting their eclectic music and setting the tone for how the rest of the night was going to play out. Although they only played eleven songs, their set lasted a staggering two and a half hours, and they made sure the audience soaked in every moment of the show by stretching out the length of songs like “Jambi” to nearly 11 minutes, which is, in reality, a 7-minute song. They even brought out guitarist Alex Lifeson of Canadian band Rush to perform “Jambi” with them, taking the stage away with a nearly 3-minute long solo! They ended the night off with the heavy “Forty Six & Two”, a song that had everyone headbanging along to the popular prog-metal anthem.
TOOL’s show on Tuesday, November 21st was the last concert of their tour, which concluded with two full-house shows at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena. The arena boomed with excitement before, during and after their performance, and that night is surely one for the books for many attendees. I’m beyond stoked that I got to witness their phenomenality live, and can’t wait for another chance to watch them again soon!
You can find future tour dates here, and be sure to follow TOOL on Instagram and Facebook.
