Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Imagine a good LSD trip. If you haven't had one like I haven't then just imagine what you think it would be like. Now, peel it off of the inside of your eyelids and project it onto a stage. I don't just mean the backdrop of a stage. I mean take a white stage... floor, backdrop, everything and project the acid trip images onto the whole damn thing. Slow moving clouds, starry fields with planets floating back and forth, fast changing images of shapes and forms and diagrams and patterns and kaleidoscopes and unicellular organisms, etc. Now take a band and put them on this trippy stage we've created. Have them play some intense music and just for kicks, throw in some lasers. The band didn't have much stage presence themselves because they wanted to appear more as shadow forms against this amazing visual backdrop rather than taking the center of attention themselves. That's the show I saw tonight. That's Tool. They were my favourite band before and I'll be damned if they haven't cemented that place for a while. I drove to San Antonio to see them and god I wish Corpus Christi wasn't so far away from here or I'd more than likely try to see them again. I'm still trying to talk myself out of considering flying to Atlanta again in a couple of weeks to catch their show again there. It's impossible to describe what an experience that show is.
For those that haven't been to a Tool concert and are unable to experience the wonder themselves, I've googled around to find some images from other shows they've done that are similar to what I saw to give you a taste of it.
Images:
Many Images
One background
Several Images
4 pictures (have to skip 11 pictures after the first one to find the rest... worth the scroll)
Lasers
Videos:
Audio isn't that great on most of these and you may want to skip through a bit to get a feel for them rather than watching the entirety of every video.
Shows full stage projections
Jambi - shows several backgrounds
Wings for Marie Pt. II - main song to use lasers
Rosetta Stoned - blurry, but good visuals especially beginning at 1:05 and fast changing beginning at 1:23
The Pot - probably best quality of visuals out of the vids in this list [Edit 22May: link was wrong]
Stinkfist - visualizations primarily from music video for the song
P.S. If, by any chance anyone reading this has both done acid and gone to a Tool concert, I'd love to know whether my comparing the two is anywhere near accurate since I've never done acid myself. Comments by anyone who has done acid and takes the time to look at the pictures and/or videos would be informative as the second best.
