Show started at 907pm and ended at 1103 pm. 1 hour and 56 minutes!!!

“& following our will & wind we may just go where no one's been.
we'll ride the spiral to the end & may just go where no one's been.”

And I may have just gone to where I’ve never been—to the Tool concert I hungered and ached for! May everyone who has ears to hear experience the healing power of what awaits you at this show!

On a magical May night at an outdoor venue graced by the sunset at showtime and a waxing moon high in the sky by show’s end, Tool brought 10,000 people from all over the region to Birmingham for the still strong 10,000 Days Tour—to then take a rock crowd on a prog-metal spiral to an inner constellation of crashing and crushing creativity.

Look folks—seats matter. We were not happy with our 300 level tickets and spent the whole night wearing our Harry Potter invisibility cloaks for weaving and wiggling throughout the venue. By the lighters hoisted “break” before the fierce final movements and moments, we ended up in abandoned “box seat”—the special reserved rows at the back of the 100-level section. Finally, I could feel the bass in my belly and balls and really appreciate the visionary video show for its pure psychedelic craft.

The long, gentle intro to “10,000 Days” and its sustained and building emotions suggests to me the sophisticated place where Tool gets its “prog” credentials. With “10,000 Days” and “Wings for Marie” working like movements in classical music and building to an epic crescendo, we immerse ourselves in a swirling baptism of bass, guitars, and drums seek solace when all the combined sounds construct an ear-bleeding symphony, a sweeping ocean of noise.

I had to shut out the side-chatter, the peripheral banter of people who thought that the opening parts to this piece were specially provided for the band for you to talk on the cell-phone and make other superficial comments to your concert-mates. Once I did, it was all over. At first, I was just misty eyed. By the smashing end of the song, I was a howling and convulsing and crying mess, feeling the pain and the joy that this song packs into one place and then releases to the sky. It wasn’t sadness or elation I felt but something deeper—perhaps the raw version of what this song symbolizes to me: the liberation wrought by both acceptance of love’s reality and defiance of religion’s hypocrisy.

Floating to the parking lot, I mused: Tool gave us our wings!!!

Look, I have much more to say, but we need to check out of the hotel and hit the road for Tennessee. I’m going to spin some of this into a published review for a webzine I edit, and I will also post more here.