View Single Post
Old 09-25-2006, 12:58 PM   #130
Level 10 - Vehement
 
transcend187's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: an idea
Posts: 2,916
Bincount™: 1439
Re: 2006/09/23 - Toronto, ON - Molson Amphitheatre

Let me first say that I really enjoyed Isis. Certainly not my favourite band, but despite the somewhat muddy sound quality they were very together and they have a cool sound. I've listened to some of their material before and it's really interesting.

Left towards the end of their set to beat the post-opener rush to the concessions, got some drinks and lit up a joint. Some guy beside us was like, "Hah, look dude, these guys are burning right here! See, I told you we should!" or something like that.

It was about 5 minutes after this that my friend suddenly said she didn't feel good, leaned on me, and then passed out, collapsing in a heap on the ground. I picked her up, and she proceeded to do it again. Scared the fuck out of me! Getting my very stoned wits together I carried her over to a wall/railing and sat down with her for 10 minutes. Turns out she'd been kinda sick all week and had already had a few blackouts. Guess the weed lowered her blood pressure too much.

When she said she was feeling better (and we tested how she was standing up for a bit) we went back to the PIT. We got back about a minute before Tool started. Good timing! We stayed at the back of the pit, leaning against the fence. We were all very stoned, my buddy brought some White Widow.

Ok...Stinkfist. What an amazing song to open a concert with!! Last time, it was Rosetta Stoned (at H-bird), which was good (LK is great to start) but doesn't pack the punch, the sheer power that Stinkfist does. And then the extended bit came in and blew us all away. Stinkfist is not really one of my favourite Tool songs (as much as I love it) but when the extended part is added in it really adds a new depth to the song, I love it!

Cool to hear The Pot live for the first time. Well-executed (though I seem to remember Maynard starting in the wrong key, anyone else notice that? Maybe I was just too stoned).

I'm almost embarrassed to say that the white widow was so intense I tuned out of everything between The Pot and 46&2 and didn't really register that it was playing until about halfway through. But the drum solo was incredible as usual, and it's always a great song to hear.

Jambi, which I found wasn't particularly exciting at the H-Bird, was amazing this time. A really good job all around by the boys, and the talkbox solo is very cool. Incredibly tasteful guitar work from Adam as always. Reminds me of David Gilmour, in that he doesn't play that many notes, but he makes every note count. And Maynard was [mostly - I'm very sensetive to intonation] spot-on, especially in the bridge ("Jambi" eyes) which kicked ass!

Schism was good as usual, especially with the sped-up bridge. Love that bit. Danny is insane. I also noticed they paused a little longer this time before going into it (the double-time part).

Rosetta Stoned...well...let's just say, I love it to death but I feel it doesn't work well live. The megaphone just doesn't sound right, and the lyric timing seems difficult for M in the spoken parts (or is it intentionally badly timed? doesn't seem like it). It's really too bad, because the rest of the song is amazing. It was better here than at H-bird.

Ahhh, Wings/10kDays. I wished and wished and wished....and I guess Jambi heard my wishes. Ok, to preface my exuberant praise of this song, I'd like to say that I was extremely annoyed by some of the assholes around me making lots of noise during the song (the quiet parts). The crowd did not seem to get into the song that much, for the most part, which detracted somewhat from the atmosphere. But apart from that (and Adam's unfortunate glaring mistakes) it was an incredible sensory experience. It's truly a beautiful song, and the band executed it incredibly well (as I said, despite Adam's flubbs). The light show added so much to the experience, and when the clouds started roiling across the laser beams, I felt as if I was seeing the music. That said, a lot of people in the crowd seemed disinterested or somewhat detached from the music at this point and it really didn't help the atmosphere and feeling of the song. During the quiet outro, there were a lot of people making noise and it ruined the vibe. And, I'm sorry to say, Adam's mistake really didn't help that. That's a pretty important part of the song. But I can't be too hard on him, considering he gave us all an absolutely stellar performance for [most of] the rest of the show, and those songs are just as much his creation as any of the other members. I'm just happy I got to hear this song live/live.

Lateralus - I've only been to two Tool concerts, but I've heard numerous bootlegs of various qualities, and this was the best live performance of Lateralus I've ever heard. Everyone was spot-on (I may have detected a couple of minor mistakes but I don't remember them and I didn't really care, given the overall quality of the performance). In addition, the lights were incredible. Not much more I can say about that.

Vicarious had a very cool extended intro, and the song itself was very well-done. Lot's of energy, great playing from the whole band, and Maynard was definitely in his element. Vicarious is one of the most well-suited songs for his [current] vocal range.

Ahhhh, and closing with Aenema. I'm glad they did. Opened and closed with songs from Aenima. The crowd went nuts when they started. I was in the pit, a little closer to the back, and the people in front of me were definitely most active during Aenema. I love this song, it's where Tool gets to show people that they really can be a FUN band as well. Well, fun in a sarcastic, cynical sort of way. Great way to close a show. Heh, took me a little while to realize Maynard was messing with the "Junkies" line. Good stuff. :D

The visual effects were very cool, though the size of the screens was disappointing: hard to see from the pit, too small to get the effect of the videos. The lights were really awesome, though I think they coulda done more with them. I've heard so much about that backdrop from the last tour I was hoping they'd do something like that again, but no such luck. Ah well, the lights were great.

I am unbelievably thrilled that I got to see this show. It was an incredible experience. It simply reinforced my understanding that while Tool really is not "the best band ever", they have something that nobody else seems to be able to touch, which is a perfect combination of emotion, complexity, and accessibility. They're really accessible: they're not overly heady, yet they have a strong intellectual side, and they attract a huge demographic range. They're not really world class musicians (except Danny) but they play and compose in a way that really resonates with people and sounds incredible. And I still don't know how they manage to stay together and sound so incredible on some of those rhythmically rhydiculous songs. Maynard adds a wonderful element of (this is going to sound odd) dark goofyness to the band that is pretty unique, as well, not to mention his brilliant lyricism and his voice.

Leaving the show was a little scary, being on that tiny bridge packed with people, hanging over Lakeshore Blvd. But it held out, and we didn't die. Good for you, engineers!

I really, really missed hearing certain songs from Undertow and Lateralus (though no tears at the absence of Sober, as great as it is), but I understand that this is the 10,000 Days tour, I didn't expect anything deviating from their standard setlist. Hopefully they'll do another tour after this and come back to Toronto, maybe play some fan favourites for us like Third Eye, Pushit, No Quarter, Flood, Cold and Ugly... I can't see them doing The Grudge for the simple reason that Maynard likely can't pull off that scream anymore. Even Third Eye or Pushit would be a stretch. Eh, we'll see.

Last edited by transcend187; 09-25-2006 at 01:16 PM..
OFFLINE |