Cover Image: Maynard James Keenan strikes a commanding pose against Tool’s blistering visual backdrop at RAC Arena. Photo by Karen Lowe.

Tool
RAC Arena, 2 December 2025

In Tool we trust.

There are few acts as dependable live as the LA art-metal outfit. In the live arena, their singular style is comparable to the likes of Bjork and Roger Waters in its visual achievements. It’s not about playing the hits, and oftentimes it’s like Tool purposefully choose not to, preferring a narrative suited to the times.

This tour is notable for the return of angrier early tracks including Crawl Away and Intolerance from 1993 debut Undertow. H. from Ænima in ’96, and The Grudge from Lateralus (2001), also featured, tellingly. Never an overtly political band, nonetheless these choices to reflect a world divided by bigotry and narrow-mindedness, pointing a finger at topical subjects such as war, immigration, and ultra-conservative agendas.

Compared to their previous visit in 2020 (famously falling on the most romantic Valentine’s Day Perth metalheads have enjoyed this decade), there were only six songs in common despite no album arriving since. Lifted from most recent albums Fear Inoculum and 10,000 Days, tracks including Jambi, Invincible and Vicarious have come to form the spine of modern Tool setlists. Rarely less that eight minutes in length, these proggy behemoths allow the visuals time to tell a story and evoke as much feeling as the lyrics.

And it’s the live production where Tool truly excel, with trippy animation and stop motion sequences the order of the day. Largely from the mind of guitarist and art director Adam Jones, the immense swirling colours during Pneuma created an ecosystem of connectivity; closer Vicarious, meanwhile, was a tour de force of lasers and worm-like creatures absorbing one another, separating, and then rejoining en route to a spectacular climax.

Other highlights included percussion wunderkind Danny Carey’s spectacular drum solo segueing into the warped analogue synths of Chocolate Chip Trip, and a cover of Black Sabbath’s Hand of Doom showcasing guitarist Tony Iommi’s influence on Jones in particular, frontman Maynard James Keenan simply adding “Rest in peace, Ozzy” in solidarity to the late titan of heavy metal.

Earlier, Byron Bay upstarts Headsend kicked off the night. More obviously influenced by Nirvana and grunge than metal, they seemed an odd choice at first but acquitted themselves well with a couple of epic numbers to close. Well appreciated by the Tool devotees, it was a reminder that the headliner’s origins go back to the 90s heyday of flannel, albeit that Tool don’t fit neatly into any genre classification.

Indeed, for a band never suited to the popular thrash or nu metal tags of their day, they certainly remain a hit with the alternative set, selling out RAC Arena faster this year than they did five years ago. It’s certainly a live show that keeps punters coming back for more; more than that, it’s among the best (and most creative) AV performances the world has ever seen, and reliably has been for 30 years now.