Tool at Barclays Center, Brooklyn

Maynard James Keenan

James Keenan was born in Ravenna, Ohio, and lived there with his mother until he was about 12, then moved into his father's home in Scottville, Michigan. He took on the name Maynard James Keenan while serving in the U.S. Army. After his military service, he worked as an interior designer for a pet store in Massachusetts and was transferred to Los Angeles, California, where he was promptly fired. While working in set construction, he played in several local bands and met drummer Danny Carey when both were in the comedy rock band Green Jellö. They formed the progressive metal band Tool in 1990 with guitarist Adam Jones. Justin Chancellor replaced the band's original bassist in 1995. Tool went on to sell 13 million albums in the United States alone. Tool released its fifth studio album and first in 13 years, Fear Inoculum, on August 30, 2019.

Tool enforced a strict photography ban at Barclays Center, so radically severe that security patrolled the aisles throughout the concert and forcibly ejected anyone caught taking photographs; even fans who were seen checking the time on their cell phones were interrogated. Good photographs would have been challenging for most fans, however; for half the show, the band performed behind a curtain of threads, and Keenan seldom performed under a spotlight, singing from the darkest back corners of the stage. The set meshed songs that spanned the band's career, from the earlier metal, the middle-period prog-rock, and the later ambient work. Despite the massive stage, the musicians barely moved throughout the performance, instead relying on an extravagant video presentation behind them to draw the audience's vision. The arena's sound was magnificently crisp as the complex and cerebral arrangements pushed unusual time signatures into jarring cycles. The guitar leads were enhanced by chiming arpeggios, the bass lines were resplendent in thick tones, and polyrhythmic drums completed the drive. Keenan's elastic, moody vocals often took a back seat to the majesty of the complete sound. The constant and overly-zealous security efforts remained an extreme downer, however. One may favor a photography ban in principal, but ultimately what is more distracting, happy fans taking photographs or angry fans being unwillingly removed from the premises? Keenan, who hardly spoke during the concert, surprisingly invited fans to take photographs during the final song, when he introduced and brought on stage the artist Alex Grey.

Setlist:

1. Fear Inoculum
2. Ænema
3. The Pot
4. Parabol
5. Parabola
6. Pneuma
7. Schism (abbreviated)
8. Jambi
9. Vicarious
10. Part of Me
11. Forty Six & 2

Encore:

1. Chocolate Chip Trip
2. Invincible
3. Stinkfist