Wow. Great show. It was my 6th time seeing them, 2nd time at the Amphitheatre. Of the four of us there, who had all seen the 10,000 Days tour multiple times, I was the only one who decided to check out the setlist beforehand just to see if they were going to switch it up. They didn't. Still, I managed to keep it a secret and played it up like I was hoping they'd play Pushit or something like that (which I fuckin hoped they would!) but I knew they wouldn't dick around much with the set. Same old, same old.

However, the fuckin sound mix was spot on. We could hear Maynard perfectly from where we were. I didn't catch him fuckin around with the lyrics at all unlike what posters said from other show reviews, outside of Rosetta Stoned (the megaphone part - was missing "and I didn't even graduate from fuckin highschool", he said something entirely different there and a bunch of other stuff). The only thing about sitting way the fuck at the back by the fence is that the show was not loud at all. I've had TOOL cranked on the ghettoblaster way louder than that in my backyard. That's what I get for showing up late to the grass section though, eh?

Anyways, Adam switched up a riff in Stinkfist and it sounded fuckin awesome. That was right around the time I finally made it out of the beer line and made my way to the back fence where we parked ourselves for the rest of the show. Kind of reminded me of that one sustained note at the end of the live Pushit (which changes the whole mood of the song if you ask me) and I was kind of floored by that subtle detail he threw in there. NICE!

We showed up kind of late, about 15 mins before Tool came on but I don't think I remember seeing the place that packed before. Unfortunately, that also meant A LOT of security fuckers floating around - so much that my brother-in-law, who's usually firing one up every song (just about) was all cautious about it. And just when we were about to, another yellowjacket walked by. We didn't even have a chance to smoke one until Lateralus when I finally said "fuck it" and sparked one up of my own. Other than that, all the people around us were pretty cool. Nice banter from everyone on the way out. Some chick was being looked at by the security crew right behind us, probably wacked out on shrooms or some other psychodelic shit.

One MAJOR criticism. Next time you're wrapping up your show, sign the goddamn last chorus of the song, Maynard. I don't know if he thought the crowd was going to belt that out for the end or whatever, but that shit backfires BIG TIME when people don't really imbibe. I could have done w/out the shitty echo effect on his vox for the entire song, too (they fixed them a bit by the end but by then it was too late).

Tool. I fuckin love you. I'm glad Maynard didn't just mail it in like it's been sounding like he's been doing lately (besides folding the cards early on Vicarious). Not my favourite performance by them but it was right up there. Definitely one of the better sound mixes.


PS: anyone with a recording of the show, I'd love to get my hands on a copy if anyone would be so kind as to share. The only set I'm missing of all the Tool shows I've seen is the Hummingbird show in 06 (although I'd shit twice to have that one too!). And to whoever said the traffic SUCKED on the 427, amen to that. Took 4hrs to get back home. Totally worth it, though.