Tool, the prog metal band who released their new album Fear Inoculum almost six years ago, hosted their own destination festival this weekend, dubbed Tool In the Sand. Several fans, though, have been left disappointed in the event's wake.
Staged in the Dominican Republic before their South American tour, the three-day festival had Tool headlining the first two nights, among other acts like Primus, Coheed and Cambria, and King's X. Many fans that shelled out for the event are lighting the Los Angeles band up on social media, however, berating them for playing similar sets on both nights. Yes, Tool technically delivered "two unique" performances as promised, but in the lamest sense of the term.
The first night, while offering no surprises in its resemblance to several of Tool's recent concerts, left most fans satisfied, with reliable fist-pumpers like "Stinkfist," which opened their set. On night two, though, the "Hooker With a Penis" legends phoned it in. A whopping four songs were played both nights, a statistic more shocking when you realize these four songs ("Fear Inoculum," "Rosetta Stoned," "Pneuma," "Jambi") have a combined runtime of around forty minutes.
Unsurprisingly, fans – some of whom paid many thousands of dollars to attend the festivities – booed and flipped off the quartet. In fact, the second night's closer, "Vicarious," was abandoned – most likely because that would have been, yes, another repeat. Check out each setlist on setlist.fm for yourself.
Multiple posts on the band's Reddit and Facebook fan pages discussed the letdown in the aftermath of the incident; luckily, the band did not play on the last night of their festival. Mastodon headlined day three, following the departure of founding lead guitarist Brent Hinds.
Ah well, Tool – you win some, you lose some.
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