sonnyboy11

As usual, most of the early reviews here cover things pretty well. BTW, spiralspinalcord, Maynard doing the 'W" thing was showing the crowd their (his) opposable thumbs. I'm not sure precisely where he was going with the comment, but that's when he did it.

Some more good and bad-

Very typical cavernous arena sound at Rabobank- reminds me of the LA Sports Arena and SD Sports Arena. Not really designed for concerts.

Isis was ok. Their sound was murky but their drummer is excellent and helped cut the rythms through the masoleum-like acoustics of the arena. I gotta hear them a bit more to form an opinion.

Tool also had some problems with the murky acoustics that steadily improved after a couple of songs. But I was pretty close for this one and that had something to do with the sound quality. As someone noted above, if you want decent sound at one of these shows- go stand by the soundboard.

Maynard's comment about Korn being from Bakersfield "so you have that going for you" was classic. Also, his sign off for the night "It's time for us to vanish like a fart in the wind" was hilarious too. That said, he did the "I thought they confiscated your crack-pipes at the door" comment again. I am not even sure what the hell he is trying to do with that one so I hope he drops it for LA.

Solid performances all around. You know, there are times when I think they should just rename the band "The Justin Chancellor Experience"- DAMN is he good! And the new songs really allow him to shine. Adam had a slight miss on timing coming into the second verse of Jambi. He looked across at Justin and Danny and let out a big smile. Pretty cool when they're human after all.

Song-wise, I got to see two that I hadn't yet; Right In Two and Rosetta Stoned. Both were just incredible. I rocked out all of those Rosetta Stoned lyrics as best I could- thanks TDN!

Although I could bitch about not gettings Wings, you know what? I was cool without it. One thing I truly loved was just how far the band has come with the interludes between songs and, this being my third time seeing them on this tour, I really thought those moments were my favorite. The long intro to Sober was intense! Intension intro (sans lyrics) was also very special. But the best was the jam right before Vicarious- VERY cool! And then Vicarious dominated as usual.

I met a couple of cool people there. A 48 year old dad who had brought his son. He had a rambling story about dropping acid to a Led Zepplin concert during their Houses of the Holy tour which I dug. There was also a super hot Asian girl in front of me who I talked to towards the end and after the show and turned out to be a real sweetheart (don't judge a book by its cover). Her brother yelled at Adam "marry my sister!" as he was walking off. She thought that was hilarious and had a great smile. Some idiot from the pit (can people PLEASE stop moshing during Schism? Geezus..) bullied his way back to the rail where me the girl and the dad were standing and made a move like he needed to puke. He pushed the Asian gal aside and leaned over the rail, but then nothing happened. And the next thing I knew the idiot had decided this was his 'new position' for the rest of the show. He was sweating everywhere and flailing about in between leaning over the rail and deciding whether or not he might yak after all- way to be a JACKASS dude! Still, it helped me in that this is where the girl and I started to chat. Mostly about what an ass the guy was, but whatever! :P

Ok, time for the rant to end. Two more shows coming up so I gotta save something- see you all there!