PHOTOS — TOOL w/ Elder Hollywood 2024 ⋆ Shows I Go To

PHOTOS — TOOL w/ Elder Hollywood 2024

TOOL w/ Elder • January 18, 2024 • Hard Rock — Hollywood, FL • Photos by Richie Williams — instagram.com/thesobergoat

LIVE REVIEW — TOOL w/ Elder

Hollywood Hard Rock /// January 18, 2024

Review by: Trevor Bosmans

When I was a teenager in the late 90’s, I constantly begged my parents to let me go to a live show. After being denied numerous times, I finally wore them down. They agreed to let me go to the next big show that I wanted to go to at our local venue. That show just happened to be Lollapalooza 97 featuring Korn, Porno for Pyros, Snoop Dogg and headlined by Tool who were fresh off the release of Ænima. It’s hard to believe that Tool was my first show on my own but it’s even harder to believe that nearly twenty-seven years later I’d be reviewing their show at one of the best venues in the country, Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

I arrived at the venue just in time to catch the opener, Elder. About a week prior to the show, my friend introduced me to these guys and I’ve been hooked ever since. As great as their albums sound, they still don’t do this band justice. Elder is a band that you need to see live to fully appreciate. I’ll definitely be there the next time they play a headlining show in my area. I have a feeling that after this tour we are going to be seeing some huge things from Elder.

At 9 p.m. exactly, the lights dimmed, the sound of a heartbeat played as visualizations started slowly moving from left to right across the high-definition screens. Drummer, Danny Carey played the opening beat of “Fear Inoculum”, the title track and opener of Tool’s newest album. He was soon joined by bassist, Justin Chancellor and guitarist, Adam Jones as they ripped into this ten-minute opener. Singer, Maynard James Keenan could be seen in the background standing on a platform behind the rest of the band. This was by far the best he’s ever sounded live out of the four times I’ve seen Tool over the past twenty-seven years.

Over the next two hours, we were taken on a journey throughout Tool’s discography leaning heavily on Fear Inoculum but still touching on almost every album besides Undertow. “Jambi” and “Rosetta Stoned” with the killer “Lost Keys” intro from 10,000 Days were some of my favorite highlights from the set. They even played “Sweat” off of their 1992 EP, Opiate. Closing out the main set was “The Grudge” from 2001’s Lateralus. Maynard’s vocals on this song sounded amazingly clear thanks to the state-of-the-art sound of Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. It’s no surprise that some of the biggest bands in the world make it a point to play this stellar venue.

After a short ten-minute intermission, Danny Carey returned to play my favorite part of the show, drum solo “Chocolate Chip Trip”. Each member of this band is intricate to the continued success of this band and Danny Carey is the glue that holds them together. It was great to see him have his chance to shine on his own. The rest of the band soon returned to the stage to play two more off Fear Inoculum, “Culling Voices” and “Invincible”. Tool is one of the few bands from the 90’s that I still get excited from hearing their new songs live. This band has continued to progress and has only gotten better after all these years.

Tool finished out the night with “Stinkfist” from Ænima which brought me back to my first show back in 97. This was my first time I had heard it live in almost twenty-seven years and it was even better than my first time hearing it. Every aspect of this show was completely on-point from the lights to the sound to the band. It also helped that had the best view I’ve ever had of the band (my last show in Tampa I was so high up I had the wall behind me). This was a perfect ending to an unbelievable night with one of my favorite bands. Hopefully, the next time I see Tool I’ll spiraling out at a residency at The Sphere in Vegas!