Having seen TOOL for the 6th time now, I'm slightly frustrated with TOOL.

It appears to me they've grown stagnant and refuse to play anything outside the same set list they've been playing for basically the last 2 -3 years, since 10,000 Days came out. This is slightly troubling for me since tickets for TOOL are not the cheapest and they rarely come to Houston anymore and so I'm forced to travel all over the beautiful state of Texas to see what was once and still are to some extent, my favorite band. As a long time listener to TOOL I dream of seeing Maynard playing for three to four hours and only playing stuff off of Opiate, Undertow and AEnema (and a few Lateralus songs - leave the 10K Days stuff for the radio poseurs who only hear a few of the singles and think they're fans.) I would clear my bank account to go to a TOOL show that wasn't filled with boring songs like Rosetta Stoned (a great album song, so boring in arena shows since you can barely discern what the hell Maynard is saying anyways) or Schism (the song that in my mind destroyed TOOL in a way.) Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I want to hear classic songs, like Eulogy, Opiate, Cold and Ugly, Sweat, Third Eye, Prison Sex, Swamp Song, Pushit, even Sober.

With that in mind, this is probably the first show I've been to of TOOL's that I left feeling unsatisfied. I saw them previously in 2007 at the Toyota Center and I felt that show was really good (considering they had a new set list from the previous time I saw them which was a few years back.) Even though I wasn't on the floor for the San Antonio show, it didn't really matter much. Maynard's vocals were overpowered for the most part by Adam and Justin (which is a huge problem I've had with every arena show I've been to in the past - you figured they'd learn how to do the vocals for an arena show properly one day but I guess not.) Flood was phenomenal as always, and the highlight of the show and since it was the only Undertow song, that made it even better. Lateralus was great as always, and while I feel the drum-off thing is a little out played now, it was still entertaining and the drummer from Tweak Bird was pretty damn good. The laser show was exceptional as always, but I feel like TOOL is tied down too much by their video and laser show, which is probably some of the reason they've become stagnated and only play the same set list time and time again now. However, the biggest disappointment was the fact that TOOL's set didn't even last two hours, just under the two hour mark by 10 minutes. Some of the songs felt really rushed. Would it hurt to play the two intros to Third Eye and just jam out for another 10 - 15 minutes on Third Eye? Probably not, but that won't happen for a while.

Would I see them again? Of course. Would I see them again knowing the entire play list before I go? Of course. Considering how rare it is to see them, I'll go every opportunity I get. I just wish they would do something for the long time fans, and not continue to feed the radio masses who flood their shows and very obviously know not a lick of old TOOL songs. Thankfully I had some good fans around me this time, but there were a few in front of me who kept leaving to get beer (spend 70 bucks a ticket and you leave in the middle of a song to get a beer - stupid) and so that was annoying. Not as bad as my seats on the floor at the Toyota Center though in 2007, where the group next to me sat down when Flood started playing because they didn't know the song.

Guess we'll see what happens in the next year or two, hopefully if they put out a new album it will be along the lines of Undertow or AEnema and not 10K Days.

EDIT: Speaking of which, does anyone have a copy of the set list for the 2002 show in the Summit? I think it was 2002, when Tomahawk opened for them during the Lateralus tour. Thanks.