This band’s concert ‘spectacle’ draws 11,000 nightly. It’s coming on a Saturday, Boise

There are two unusual factors to consider about Tool coming to the Ford Idaho Center this fall.

It will be the second year in a row that the prog-metal band has played the Nampa arena — although 21 months apart.

Possibly more uncommon, though? For a secondary market like Boise?

The Oct. 14 show is on a Saturday night. The party is on. Expect headbangers to roll out in droves.

Tickets become available to the public starting at 10 a.m. Friday for $65, $85, $125 and $150, through fordidahocenter.com. There’s only one presale — for the Tool Army fan club starting at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Formed in 1990, Tool has been a concert-industry force for decades. Its shows are known for mind-bending imagery, lasers and psychedelic lights. Tool’s “Fear Inoculum Tour” has been described by the Chicago Tribune as a “twisting multimedia roller coaster of a concert.” The Arizona Republic called it “a visually breathtaking night of dystopian art-rock spectacle.”

In 2022, Tool averaged over 11,000 tickets sold per night, according to Creston Thornton, president of promoter Live Nation’s mountain region, “and is still one of the largest touring bands in the world.”

When Tool played the Idaho Center in 2017, it sold out — over 9,000 tickets — in approximately six minutes. Because of the pandemic, Tool’s 2020 show at the arena was bumped to 2021 at the last moment, then rescheduled yet again to 2022 — “and still did almost 8,000,” Thornton said via email.

This story was originally published June 6, 2023 at 6:00 AM.