Here's a 'review' (albeit a late one!) of the Tool concert from the Star-Telegram:
DALLAS - As Tool shows go, the one at McFarlin Auditorium at Southern Methodist University was pretty standard -- which is to say, extraordinary.
This arty metal-rock band from Los Angeles handily surpasses most of its peers at live performance. Dramatic presence, musical chops, artistic vision, sophistication, coordination of visuals with music, breathtaking collaboration, sense of purpose and just-plain overall good taste: This band has it all, and all of that was evident Monday night.
But there was more to this event than showmanship. The tour, a short run of warm-up dates preceding a trip to Europe, made stops only at theaters and other smallish venues with 2,000 seats or less.
It came right on the heels of Tool's latest CD, 10,000 Days, which was released last week.
The net effect was a frenzy for entry to the show, with furious scalping action, especially on eBay, where single tickets reached $500. (The official price was $66.66 - how characteristically droll of Tool.)
Shelly Walker, 23, of Coppell bought a pair of tickets on eBay, for which she paid $535.
"I had to - it was the only way I could get tickets," she said. "Tool is my boyfriend's favorite band."
McFarlin's 1,200 seats were, of course, sold out, which gave the auditorium an air of hysteria, with fans torn between celebrating Tool's return after a five-year hiatus, and a kind of pinch-me jubilation at being able to score one of the sought-after seats.
A small-stage performance by a band ordinarily plays arenas is like an exercise in compression; they've become versed in the broader gestures required to reach tens of thousands of people. Tool's tribal rhythms and mighty waves of guitar are already potent.
So this really was a larger-than-life experience, as affecting on older cuts such as Forty Six & 2 as material from the new CD such as the climactic Jambi.
The quartet's ability to start and stop on a dime reached virtuoso heights; set against a backdrop of four panels throbbing with jewel-toned colors and abstract organic shapes, it had a multimedia effect that seemed certain to linger long after the night was over.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/14544114.htm