Tool and Metallica

Tool was the last band I saw before the Pandemic, when they closed Aftershock 2019 as headliner. Metallica I haven't seen in a few years, but I've seen them many times, probably my favorite was the Big 4 show where they played the Coachella Main Stage the weekend between Coachella and Stagecoach.

I'm talking about them because they are really the only metal bands that have been consistently active and are also A-list in the general festival scene. Tool and Metallica can headline pretty much any festival anywhere in the world, and yet their whole approach is so different.

Maynard seems to have spent his whole career with Too getting more and more withdrawn, and at Aftershock I could barely even see him. He said one word the whole show between songs, "Sacto", short for Sacramento, where the festival was held. The band barely moves. They are technically brilliant, they have an amazing light show and graphics art, but they don't show themselves on the screen.

Metallica-they run around like crazy. Sometimes they play pranks on each other on stage. The music is as tight as Tool, but the style is looser in every way. And they talk to the crowd, each other.

But then listen to their last albums-and Metallica is all, We're so fucked, shit outta luck, hard-wired to self-destruct! And Tool on the other hand is like,

We are born of one breath, one word
We are all one spark, sun becoming

Every time I see Metallica, I feel like they're the same as us. They're up on stage, but they're part of the crowd in a way.

Seeing Tool is like seeing the High Priest perform a rite. It's not so much about them as it is about the way that music can create transcendence.

To anyone holding a 'Roo ticket, I hope you get to see Tool in a few months!