In one sense, Tool is incomparable.
It is the darkest and most cerebral of the mainstream metal bands to emerge from the ’90s music scene (those of a certain age can still see the stop-motion video for “Sober” play in their mind’s eye).
It is led by an enigmatic singer who’s become an almost non-front man , and driven by a rhythm section that somehow pulls grooves out of the oddest of time signatures.
But watching the band’s immersive set at Fresno’s Save Mart Center on Monday, one could draw some parallels.
Like this one from a friend, seeing the band for the first time: “Tool are a dystopian jam band. Like if Grateful Dead came of age in the Reagan era.”
Or, if it replaced all the acid with meth, to quote another one-line review.
And there is a certain jam-band, prog-rock quality to a Tool concert.
On Monday night the band played just 11 songs over nearly two and a half hours, which was split into two parts with an intermission.
For comparison, Pearl Jam played double that many songs at its concert at the arena two years ago.