Review: Tool at RAC Arena

Tool at RAC Arena
w/ Headsend
Tuesday, December 2, 2025

On what would have otherwise been a typically sleepy Tuesday night in Perth, an army of black t-shirted, slightly obsessed Tool fans descended on RAC Arena to witness one of the best heavy acts of our time. The California four-piece had added a Perth sideshow—along with dates in Adelaide and Auckland—as a bonus run alongside their headline sets at Good Things Festivals on the east coast, and this standalone show was eagerly embraced by the faithful.

As a band well known for not rushing into things, five years isn’t a lot in Tool-years, but a lot had gone down since the last time they had graced this stage. Their last visit landed on the dawn of COVID on Valentine’s Day in 2020, when they were touring their first album in 13 years, Fear Inoculum, and while there was no new album in tow this time, the pre-COVID years feel like an age ago. Likewise, Tool have never been ones to cash in on anniversary tours for their albums (although there’d be a pretty penny in it if they did).

No, what we had in the lead-up to this show was a blank slate, which only fueled the speculation amongst fans as to what would be on the setlist. Other shows indicated Tool had dived into their immense discography for deep cuts on this tour; however, being a band that always played by their own rules, there was conjecture about what would make the cut for Perth fans. Aenima? Prison Sex? Parabola? It was time to find out.

First up, Byron Bay rockers Headsend revved up the crowd for the main act. With only two songs released so far, the first of which, their debut single, Stove, came out less than a month ago, and far from a household name, there was plenty of intrigue as to whether the group could live up to such a big occasion, and they delivered. Led by brothers Kyuss and Rasmus King, their sound blended guitar-heavy 90s legends like Nirvana, Fugazi and Smashing Pumpkins with vocals reminiscent of Kurt Cobain’s world-weary yelp. They won over some of music’s most discerning fans, especially as they raced to the finish line with some searing guitar licks on the final two tracks. Things are definitely looking up for this young act, but you have to say, supporting Tool on an arena tour will be pretty hard to top!

Then it was well and truly time to buckle up for the ride. To thunderous roars and amidst an electric mood across the arena, Tool took their place on stage and launched into Fear Inoculum. From the opening chords and drum rolls, it was clear how different their stage setup was from other bands. Drummer Danny Carey, with his immense, sparkling panoramic kit, was the centrepiece with a spotlight shining down upon him, while guitarist Adam Jones and bassist Justin Chancellor set up either side of the stage. Maynard, as people may be used to by now, stalked around on the back drum riser where you could mostly just see his striking mohawk silhouetted against the backdrop of visuals.

For any other act, the ten-minute title track to their 2019 record would have been a triumphant finale, but Tool were just getting started. Maynard, in one of few moments of crowd interaction, made a point of encouraging the crowd to join the band on this ride, saying he didn’t want to see any phones out for the performance. “If you can’t keep the phone in your pocket for two hours, try shoving it up your ass,” he said. It’s fair to say the crowd heeded the call, with barely a phone sighted for the remainder of the set as fans settled in for the journey.

As expected at a Tool show, the music was accompanied by some of the most mind-bending and richly detailed, trippy-as-fuck imagery a sober mind is likely to encounter. Whether it be alien cadavers, rivers of swirling lava, spiralling walls of eyes, or a space jellyfish that morphed into something like a sentient chandelier, it locked you in and held you entranced even amidst the heavy highlights of Lateralus in opener The Grudge and late-album highlight Disposition.

“Who here is under 22?” Maynard asked next. “You guys weren’t even sperm when we last played this live on tour,” he said, and the crowd cheered as the opening riff of Aenima‘s H. kicked in. 10,000 Days‘ Jambi and the distinctive megaphone-style yammering vocals on Rosetta Stoned followed, while Fear Inoculum featured again with Pneuma, as did Undertow‘s Crawl Away and Intolerance.

Then things dropped to a lull for an intermission, conveniently timed with a ticking clock on the screen, before Danny Carey took the limelight with an intricate and rhythmically rich build-up to Chocolate Chip Trip. As heavy as Tool can be, there is so much subtlety in the way Carey plays, and armed not just with the usual drum kit fare, but also with marimbas, arpeggiators, and here a custom-built modular synth, he creates such a rich and tightly woven thread of rhythms that you could watch him by himself. Next came an unexpected shout-out to the late Ozzy Osbourne with a cover of Black Sabbath’s Hand of Doom, and then, with Maynard’s blessing, the phones were allowed out for the end of the set, although it seemed most were content to stay immersed in Tool’s world as they steamed towards the finish line with Invincible and Vicarious.

For the most part, Tool fans have embraced the group’s more ‘recent’ work like this, but their heart would always lie with their earlier tracks. It was undeniable in these closing tracks, though, that the newer songs felt like they were written with the gear and the skill set Tool have now, actually seeming richer and more detailed than their early work, even though the riffs and hooks might not have the same immediacy.

But as brilliant as the performance had been, there was this feeling that there was more to come, and most of the crowd were expecting Tool to fire up the big guns at the end. But it wasn’t to be. There was to be no Aenima, no Schism, no Forty Six & 2, no Lateralus, no Parabola, no Stinkfist and no Sober. In fact, of Tool’s 10 most-streamed songs, only Fear Inoculum and Vicarious made it onto the Perth setlist. Everyone was itching for an encore, but when Maynard, Carey, Jones and Chancellor took a bow and the lights came on, it was back to reality, and upon checking phones (maybe for the first time since arriving), it was true that it was 11 pm and home time—a reality check after being in a world where time seemed to disappear.

For long-term fans that had seen Tool a few times before, it was an immense career-spanning set with plenty of deep cuts, surprises and a cosmic display of their evolution since forming back in 1990. However, if you were more of a casual fan or had never seen them before, you may have left feeling a bit unfulfilled, having seen hardly any of their most popular songs. Whatever way you felt about it, you couldn’t deny you had just witnessed one of the gigs of the year in Perth, and you’d expect just about everyone walked out of RAC Arena even more of a Tool fan than when they walked in. Until next time!

BRAYDEN EDWARDS

Photos by Stu Mckay