Video: Tool Stop Show When Fan Collapses, Use Spotlights to Create Path for Medical Personnel
November’s unthinkable tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival has put the fear of God into a lot of artists. And that’s a good thing — the more bands who’re willing to stop shows to help out their fans, the better, so long as everyone’s safe (we hear those of you who saw Deicide in ’92 complaining about how metal used to be dangerous, but we’d rather people not die). Now, a new video has emerged of Tool stopping a recent show to make sure that medical staff can reach a fan who’s collapsed.
The video comes from this Tuesday, February 22nd, in Washington, DC. Captured by Rock Feed, it shows a section of the audience up-front being suddenly lit by phone flashlights. Maynard catches on, saying, “Hang on, we have a situation down here, we have to make sure this person’s okay before we continue.” He then asks fans to make way for the EMTs, at which point the band’s lighting rig is used to illuminate the path of medical personnel and get the sick fan out of the crowd.
Look, we understand why some people miss the former lawlessness of old rock shows. Joints in the crowd! People ripping chairs out of the floor! We get it, sounds fun. But the truth is that an event like Astroworld taught us just how quickly live music can turn from rowdy to deadly, and we’d rather bands be hyper aware of incidents like this than not. Safer metal shows means more metal shows, more metal shows means more fun. If you want to get your head busted open and have no one care, go see a basement hardcore gig.
Check out the video below, and catch Tool at one of their remaining tour dates:
w/ The Acid Helps
2/23 Belmont Park, NY UBS Arena
2/26 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
2/27 Buffalo, NY KeyBank Center
3/1 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
3/3 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
3/4 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
3/6 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
3/8 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena
3/10 Chicago, IL United Center
3/12 Omaha, NE CHI Health Center Arena
3/13 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
3/15 Kansas City, MO T-Mobile Center
3/17 Moline, IL TaxSlayer Center
3/18 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center
3/20 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
4/23 Copenhagen, DK Royal Arena
4/25 Oslo, NO Spektrum
4/26 Stockholm, SE Avicii Arena
4/28 Hamburg, DE Barclaycard Arena
4/29 Frankfurt, DE Festhalle
5/2 Manchester, UK AO Arena Manchester
5/4 Birmingham, UK Resorts World Arena
5/6 Dublin, IE 3Arena
5/9 London, UK The O2 Arena
5/12 Paris, FR AccorHotels Arena
5/13 Antwerp, BE Sportpaleis
5/15 Berlin, DE Mercedes-Benz Arena
5/17 Cologne, DE Lanxess Arena
5/19 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
5/21 Krakow, PL Tauron Arena
5/23 Prague, CZ O2 Arena
5/24 Budapest, HU SportAréna
