Originally Posted by mindstream

"Hamana hamana hamana" (First Maynardism of the night)

Maynard does his best Ralph Kramden impression, and before the first note is even sung. When he came out and said this, I knew right away he was in a great mood.

I've been to many shows, and this show will be categorized as "The Maynard Show". The band was tight as hell, as always, but MAYNARD WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD. Very animated, talkative...and his fucking voice was amazing. No residual effects of his illness were evident.

I was in the lawn section, and just as they came on at 9:16pm...it started to fucking pour! "Stinkfist" is, with the exception of Third Eye, their best opener by far. From the lawn section, the sound and mixing was perfect...besides being drenched, i'm actually glad I was in the lawn area, cause it probably would have been too loud and perhaps distorted sounding any closer.

After Stinkfist, Maynard said...is it raining yet? and he repeated this a few times through the show. At one point he said:

"It's raining huh? That sucks. Just pretend we're having deviant sex, and that i'm pissing in your mouth" Greatest line ever from him, imo.

My highlights were from two of my "former less favorite" songs.

Schism--the sped up bridge, and what Danny does on the drums...i'm speechless.

Wings/10K days...a spiritual experience to see live.

When the band sat down before the final trio of songs...two of the bandmembers (I think Justin and Adam?) actually flicked their lighters on. Because of the rain, nobody had their lighters lit for 10k days, but once they did this...everybody flicked on...cool sight.

The rain subsided for the second two thirds of the show...but just as they played the first few notes of Aenima...the skies opened up again on cue (part of Danny's pact with Satan I think)

Only downer was the visuals...I agree that they're kind of cheesy, and that Tool doesn't really need all of that.

After the final song, the band hung out for quite a while, taking in the applause and thanking the crowd. Even Maynard hung out for an extended period...longer than I've ever seen him do before.

Amazing show...epic Tool.

On a final note...I got to the venue very early (5pm). So I walk into the Tweeter Center food court area at around 5:30 and all of a sudden I hear them doing the sound check for Stinkfist. So I just continue walking towards the seating area, with the music getting louder and louder. I'm walking by security left and right...waiting for someone to say something...and nobody is stopping me. I climb the few steps up to the seating area...and voila...theres Tool!! I managed to watch them play Stinkfist for about two minutes before one of the stage security guys right next to Maynard notices me and starts waving his arms like crazy for another security dude. The whole band looked right at me...awesome, LOL. They escorted me from the area, but didn't make a big deal of it. It was like Tool was playing for me personally for about two minutes!

Damn I'm tired.