UConn Philo

The Good:

- (Personal Favorite): Fuck all you junkies and fuck your short memories. (3x)
- Maynard shredding his throat to give us the Pot, which we (Chicago) missed on the small venue tour (due to sickness... again...).
- No obvious fuckups, to my ear, unlike the small venue tour. Danny was a beast, Maynard was definitely into his performance.
- For the most part, a well organized venue. If any of you were at the DMB concert in Tinley Park last Friday, you know what I mean.
- Wings.


The Bad:

- The setlist. No surprises, most of us probably had heard every one of those live before, excepting Wings. Not a single tune prior to Aenima, and basically only the mass appeal tunes. (And the fucking French got Opiate... Do I have to go to Europe to hear some classic Tool?) And no extended versions, just the doubletime breakdown in Schism.
- The stage, from the floor, seemed a lot lower than it should have been. If you're less than six feet tall (which I barely am), good luck seeing anything from the floor.
- The acoustics. With earplugs, Maynard's vocals came through very well. But way too much bottom for the venue, as usual.

The Ugly:

- The pot. No, the song rocked, as expected. But there was a ridiculous amount of marijuana on the floor. This is to be expected, and normally this wouldn't bother me and I'd probably partake. But, my guest for the concert wasn't thrilled about it (and reeking like it afterward) and I have to admit it's quite annoying to be bothered once per song by someone nudging you saying "Marijuana for sale here guys..."
- The visuals. Tool has established themselves in the past as giving you as dynamic a visual performance as their acoustic performace. A teeny strip of screens behind the band you can't even see from the floor and some ridiculous LEDs just don't cut it. (Whoever compared that crap to lite brite was spot on. When the screen came up in Lateralus I was like oh man, they were holding back on us. Wow was I wrong). And the lasers... I felt like I was at the Pink Floyd laser show at your local planetarium. For example, remember the huge floating balls (the ones from the Parabola vid) by Danny Carey on the Lateralus tour? The visuals on this tour were a huge letdown for me.

Overall, I'd give this show a C+/B-. I was disappointed - the small venue tour stop in May was way, way better. But that's just my opinion, and it was still great to be there for Tool, but my expectations weren't met. Go ahead and flame away.

Edit: I should point out that I feel for the Wisconsin fans. I'm just glad Maynard went that extra mile for us to give us what we missed out on last time.