Tool made their triumphant and much-anticipated return to Philadelphia to rock the Wells Fargo Center stage part of a very much sold out WMMR concert event on their “North American Fall Tour 2023”. Steel Beans, the artist dubbed the one-man White Stripes, opened the show.
The eleven-song set clocked in at just under two hours and fifteen minutes. It consisted mainly of tunes from Tool’s 2019 album Fear Inoculum. The band kicked-off the set with the title track from that album, followed by a rousing rendition of “Jambi” off 2006’s 10,000 Days. Tool guitarist Adam Jones even noodled a little bit of Rush’s “A Passage to Bangkok” before kicking off “Jambi”.
Maynard addressed the adoring Philly crowd a couple of times over the course of the night, which is unusual for him, especially because he loves lurking in the shadows, with minimal interaction between songs. If we weren’t loud enough for him, he would refer to us at Pittsburgh, which certainly got a rise out of the Philly crowd.
Six of the eleven songs on the setlist came from their most recent album Fear Inoculum, two from 10,000 Days, one from Lateralus, one from Aenima, and one from Undertow.
Maynard and Tool are notorious for banning phones and photography at their shows, due to the distraction it causes for members of the band while on stage. So, for the final song of the evening, Maynard allowed the crowd to take out their phones to capture their blistering rendition of one of my all-time favorite Tool songs “46 & 2”.
From top to bottom it was another amazing Tool show!
TOOL at Wells Fargo Center (November 16th, 2023) Setlist
- Fear Inoculum
- Jambi (With Rush’s “A Passage To Bangkok” intro)
- Rosetta Stoned
- Pneuma
- Intolerance
- Descending
- The Grudge
Intermission
- Chocolate Chip Trip
- Culling Voices
- Invincible
- Forty Six & 2
Thanks to Bill Raymond and Digital Noise Mag for the shots.
