...where to begin today?

First of all: I am an idiot.
For most concerts I have purchased the poster right away and carried it/hid it under seat during the show. This is has been tremendously annoying having to worry about losing/theft/ect. So today when I got to the venue, all 3 merch booths were fully stocked with posters. Every show so far has had the previous dates posters still on sale because they don't sell out, so I figured I would wait until after the show to get mine today. As soon as Vicarious ended, I quickly took off while the band did their wave to the crowd in an attempt to grab my poster before the massive crowds exited the arena. I get to the first merch booth - all sold out of signed and unsigned. Run my ass to the second booth - sold out. Same for the third. Was so fucking pissed... just my luck it sells out at the first show I decide to wait for. I rationalize with myself saying "it's just a poster". But then if I am getting the poster for EVERY show on this tour, it will be a fucking bitch months/years down the road if I am missing just one. Needless to say I end up offering $100 (which i technically didn't have) to random people for the unsigned $25 poster. After 4-5 people refused, I finally found a chick who needed rent money desperately and agreed.

And that is how I spent $100 on a $25 poster.

Whatever, on to TOOL:

I wanted to mention this in the dallas thread but I forgot. For the past two shows now they have introduced a new video advertisement that they play 15 minutes before tool takes the stage. It's an overview of this "tool shrine" that alex grey and the chapel of sacred mirrors is doing. It's a pretty neat little video and features a bunch of cool images and mini interviews with adam. I reckon the rest of you going to future shows will see it as well.

It's become pretty clear through the reviews that especially during Rosetta Stoned, maynard has been changing up the lyrics and saying random jibberish for some parts. Today was no exception, however I also noticed this during other songs as well. Specifically during Stinkfist, MJK clearly was saying random individual words at different parts of the song. By the way, that extended stinkfist is fucking incredible. Danny, you monster...

Tweak Bird's drummer is just getting better and better. The crowd generally gives them a positive reception and seem genuinely impressive. I'm definately a fan. The extended lateralus duet was epic, as always.

Adams guitar and/or mic died for the second straight night, this time during jambi. I'm not an expert on guitars so I can't tell you exactly what happened (i'm sure junior will help) - but I believe just as he was about to start the first note of the talk box solo his guitar made a weird noise, then didn't sound the way it should during the solo. Adam walked away from the talk box, looked around, and started improvizing with his pedals trying to fix it? Hopefully other more tech-savy people can comment on this.

I was sitting in a seat that was side stage tonight, so I could see the drum-tech sitting behind Danny for the entire show. It was funny when DC hit his gong during Lateralus, I thought that thing was going to topple over and kill that poor drum tech. Even when he's fixing DC's drumset in the middle of various songs, Danny is still punding away like crazy with the tech in the middle of his kit working around it. I think that guy needs special health insurance for working beside DC every night...

Oh... Lost Keys!
As i said in the text to summersea for the setlist, there was something different tonight. Almost disapointing in a way, to be honest.
They played an audio clip of a voice talking, something new I didn't recognize. Very similar to the intro of "third eye" for a few seconds there... had me super excited/nervous for a bit... but alas, it was just a new intro for lost keys/rosetta stoned.
That shouldn't take away from the song though - LK/RS is still the strongest song live on this tour, in my opinion.

Also, who the hell is the tool booking logistics person?
So far of the 7 shows, 5 of them have been in venues that are virtually in the middle of butfuck nowhere, especially in relation to the closest major city. Very annoying when you don't have a vehicle...

Oh well.
Overall tonight was interesting. A solid show, no doubt.

And it's good to see they are still adding new things to the tour is it progresses. Albeit minor additions, at least we're not getting the exact same thing every night.

G'night folks. Time to go north...

Edit: By the way, I saw Justin today a few hours before the show riding his bike through a local path/park adjacent to the venue. Always good luck with the bikes. I got to meet danny and justin in the kelowna fall 2007 show as well when they went out for a bike ride - rather unsuccessfully - through a canadian winter snowstorm.