Tool delivers dark, brooding metal masterpiece at SAP

Band is supporting release of first new album in 13 years

Cellphones were nowhere to be seen Tuesday night at the SAP Center.

That’s because Tool decreed there should be no filming or photos taken during its sold-out concert — and the patrons, for the most part, seemed to agree with the demands. Using a phone simply wasn’t worth the risk. It might tick off band leader Maynard James Keenan and the group might go another 13 years before releasing a new record.

Instead, fans just focused pretty close to 100% of their concentration on the band as it rocked through both old tunes and cuts from its fifth studio album, “Fear Inoculum,” which is its first offering since “10,000 Days” in 2006.

Amazingly, the band has only seemed to grow more popular during that lengthy recording hiatus. Tickets for the San Jose show were eagerly snatched up by fans eager to see Tool’s first performance at SAP since 2017. “Fear Inoculum” has been both a critical and commercial smash, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and receiving two Grammy nominations.

And the four musicians — vocalist Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, drummer Danny Carey and bassist Justin Chancellor — certainly know how to construct a powerful, compelling evening of live music, one that feels vastly different from what most contemporary rock acts deliver these days.

In that sense, the absence of cellphones felt rather fitting. In many ways, Tool is a throwback to an earlier and much more interesting era of rock music — one that existed well before cellphones came to be.

Sure, Keenan and company are boldly experimental, adventurous and forward-thinking, but in a fashion that recalls old-school art/prog rockers like King Crimson and Pink Floyd. The band doesn’t just put on a concert for fans — it crafts a true experience.

And what an experience it was at SAP Center as the group delivered one lengthy, thundering symphony of metal after another. The time signatures were complicated enough to befuddle a math major as the four musicians chased and found both synchronicity and synergy while building tall temples of dense sound and vision.

Keenan, sporting a spiky mohawk hairdo, didn’t talk much during the show. But he did take the time to try to confirm where the band was playing on this night.

“Supposedly, San Jose,” Keenan said, drawing a sizable reaction from the crowd.

The screams only seemed to further perplex the singer.

“That sounds like Bakersfield,” he remarked. “Still California.”

The performance was a dark, brooding metal masterpiece, beginning with the 11-minute showopening version of the new album’s title track and continuing through such longtime fan favorites as “Aenema” and “Forty Six & 2.”

Each song fit together like pieces in a puzzle, working to build an experience that felt so much bigger than the sum of its parts.

A lot of that had to do with the ingenious stage production, which, in typical Tool fashion, took the focus away from the individual players and put it squarely on the music, conveyed, very loudly, with a stellar surround sound system that seemed to transform this beloved ice hockey arena into a pair of pricey headphones.

Keenan stayed out of the spotlight, alternating between two risers on each side of Carey’s drum kit. He often sang from the shadows, making it hard to see him — especially while the band performed behind a semisheer curtain for the first part of the show.

Yes, it’s as unusual an approach as you’ll find for an arena-caliber rock act, yet it’s also one that combines with the special effects — including the impressive laser light displays and intriguing, often disturbing video imagery — to create an all-embracing artistic statement.