Maynard James Keenan is no front man, and other takeaways from Tool’s trippy Fresno concert

Over its two-and-a-half hour set Wednesday night at the Save Mart Center, Tool set forth a masterful sonic landscape of dirge-y alt metal, set to a presentation of mind-blowing visuals.

It was an experience, certainly, even if the band itself was kind of hard to see.

To start, calling vocalist Maynard James Keenan a front man would be kind of a misnomer, seeing as he spent the entirety of the show singing mostly from the shadows, on a set of risers at the back of the stage.

It was bassist Justin Chancellor who spent the most time closest to the crowd, flanked by guitarist Adam Jones.

But for much of the show, the band was obscured by its own production — a giant sheer curtain hanging from the front of the stage.

As a tension-building device, it worked, because when the curtain did finally open (after a half hour, or three songs in Tool time) you could finally see the band unobscured and it felt like a moment.

The fans got what they wanted

For those familiar with Tool, the show held few surprises, as if any were needed.

The trippy stop-motion visuals that have long been the band’s aesthetic? Check. There were lots of aliens and eyeballs. And some dissection footage for good measure.

Maynard lurking around the stage like a magician conjuring spells. Check?

In a weird get-up? Check. In this case it was a spiked mohawk, leather jacket and face paint.

Extended sonically layered groove metal jams? Check and check.

The songs

The band played 15 songs over the course of the night, putting the average song length at about 10 minutes.

Tool pulled from its entire collection, including the new album (“Fear Inoculum” and “Invincible”), Ænima (“Forty Six & 2” and “Stinkfist” were the closing numbers) and Undertow (“Swamp Song” was particularly powerful).

Author & Punisher

Author & Punisher opened the show with a 45-minute set of what in the ’90s would have been called industrial music (now it would referred to as industrial doom metal or someone such). Think a one-man version of Ministry or a harsher Nine Inch Nails.

The term onslaught comes to mind.

Tristan Stone presents Author & Punisher as a kind of warehouse-performance art, created with a series of custom machinery. Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate to an arena show, especially one without the benefit of digital video screens.

Many in the audience were left scratching their heads. It’s too bad.

No cell phones and a FresYes joke

Prior to the concert, there was much made of Tool’s no-cell phone policy, in which fans could be ejected, without refund, for taking pictures or video.

The stated purpose here was to keep people in the moment and not watching the concert through a phone screen. It seemed successful on that end, and did significantly cut down on the amount of ambient light popping up in the crowd. It in no way stopped people from getting pictures and video.

Keenan made the FresYes joke. Twice.

It’s always nice to see bands hanging out in Fresno before and after the show. Guitarist Adam Jones stopped in at Heroes Comics. He is a huge Jack Kirby fan, apparently.

Set list for Fresno, CA (via Setlist.fm)

• Fear Inoculum
• Ænema
• Eon Blue Apocalypse
• The Patient
• Parabol
• Parabola
• Pneuma
• Schism
• Jambi
• Vicarious
• Swamp Song
• Forty Six & 2

Encore:

• Chocolate Chip Trip
• Invincible
• Stinkfist

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 1:13 PM.