Using that material routinely has not softened its impact. The band has delivered countless renditions of the disturbing martial stomp “Stinkfist’’ and twitchy “Schism,’’ yet they felt like fresh assaults to the senses.
Singer Maynard Keenan, drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and bassist Justin Chancellor are arguably as tight a rock band as the members of Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd were in their respective primes.
Since Tool’s last trip to the region in 2009, Keenan has been busy with A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, bands that scale down the spectacle. But back with Tool, Keenan seemed perfectly ready and willing to join his mates in throwing the sorts of musical haymakers that have made the band as much of a favorite among metal fans as with the prog-rock listeners appreciative of the group’s intricate arrangements.
Through 10 songs and ribbons of jammy connective tissue, Tool offered some dexterous dynamic shifts. The band started with a lurching, aggressive tear, but found ways into more meditative pieces, such as “Pushit’’ and “Intension,’’ an overlooked gem from the “10,000 Days’’ album.
An onslaught of videos crammed with disturbing, nightmarish visuals and a massive light show kept the band members fairly in the shadows, though their blistering work did more to manipulate the mood of the moment than any of the accoutrements. If Carey wasn’t such a phenomenal drummer, for example, there could have been issues with him wearing a Los Angeles Lakers jersey all night in the Celtics’ house.
Having doom rockers Yob open the concert seemed one more gesture from Tool that it likes being closer to the fringes.
