Tool thrills E Center fans

TOOL AND ISIS, E Center, Tuesday.

A sellout crowd got a Tool fix Tuesday night.

Dark, brooding metal filled the E Center when lead singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor and drummer Danny Carey took the white, almost sterile-looking stage.

Keenan took his place on a platform next to the drums while Jones and Chancellor took stage left and right, respectively.

With a footstomp, the band blasted out the opening chord to "Stinkfist" from the 1996 album "Aenima."

The sound mix was clear as Keenan's frantic vocals rode the sound wave of Jones' cutting guitar, Chancellor's rumbling bass and Carey's syncopation.

"The Pot," swiped from the new album "10,000 Days," was welcomed with just as much enthusiasm as older bits "Forty Six & 2" and "Schism."

Each offering was tainted with the mesmerizing Tool sound. The use of offbeat rhythms and minor pentatonic note scales latched onto the ears and senses of the sold-out audience and took them for a ride into soul-searching lyrics.

More new songs, such as "Jambi" and "Rosetta Stoned," clocked in at a head-banging 10 minutes, while the band, true to form, kept movements to a minimum.

Although Keenan, who emerged dressed in full cowboy regalia, complete with an oversize silver belt buckle, paced, lunged and lurched about on his platform, the show was far from monotonous. The stage itself became a video screen as eye-twisting animation and videos shot across the raised backboard and the horizontal stage.

Green and orange laser lights shot crisscross into the arena, while works such as the vintage "Opiate" and "Sober" gushed from the sound system.

Jones' solos throughout the night were mind clenching as Chancellor's bass runs only helped with the audience's adrenaline rush.

At one point, Carey whapped out a precise and explosive drum solo backed by white-noise feedback from his bandmates.

The dirgy "Lateralus" capped the show, clearing the way for a surging encore featuring "Vicarious" and the power crank of "Aenima."

The opening band Isis sounded too much like an amateur Tool protege. And though it was an honor for it to open for Tool, the performance paled in comparison to the headliner.

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com