Hmm, I thought the gig was good, though fell somewhat short of being great. There certainly were excellent moments, but there was something lacking in the performance.

The sound/mix was pretty patchy at times, with bass/bottom-end overload destroying some of the dynamics of quieter parts - not sure if this is venue specific sound issues or otherwise. Carey is still the monster and I tend to be pretty fixated on him during the show, he's just amazing to watch. Justin was as animated as ever. Though the more I see maynard, the more I think he's just going through the motions these days. Not sure whether it's just another pay check to him or what, but I find it interesting to see the progression of maynard's position on stage from aenema, where he had a traditional front man's role; to lateralus, moving to the back of the stage, though still lit up; to 10,000days where he's basically back of stage in the dark most of the set. And as much as Danny and Justin do their best and play their hearts out, Maynard's feigned apathy/indifference to performing these days seems to really distract from the bands performance far greater than I would like or I'm sure he would admit too(but then maybe it's just me, as quite a lot of reviews I've read thought this was the greatest performance from tool since sliced bread was invented by them ;-)

I wasn't the biggest fan of 10,000 days(let me get that off my chest!), again it had some great/outstanding moments, but it kind of seemed unfinished to me and didn't gel like previous releases(and I hate to use the word filler in describing a tool album, but...) I thought the production sounded promising(the production was so different to lateralus and aenema, it was if they found a palette full of colours to work with-don't get me wrong the production on both lateralus & aenema are pretty spectacular, though after hearing what they achieved with the 10,000 days sound I do wonder how aenema or lateralus would sound with similar production qualities), but I digress. Not being the biggest fan of 10,000 days and getting over half the set of songs from that album, before the encore, was probably going to disappoint me a little. And to have nothing off Undertow was probably a bigger surprise to me.

In saying that Third Eye was spectacular, I had a flashback to '97 when I saw them open with the same song at Festival Hall in Melbourne, I had high hopes of an amazing performance with a spectacular setlist. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way for me. Right in Two and You Lied were other great moments in the set. The performance of Orion was a cool little addition to the set. A couple of mistakes by the guys in the set, but nothing of train-wreck proportions and I think most punters would have missed them anyways. But I don't think they took away from the performance, more just an observation by myself. I realize the guys haven't played/toured as a unit for some time, so are probably a little rusty.

So it was a good gig, but not a spectacular one(for me anyways) and to be fair they aren't touring a new album, so a new stage production isn't warranted for these shows. Having a memory bank and experiences of Tool show's all the way back to '95's Alternative Nation and having caught a stack of shows over the years since, not just here in Oz, but also the US and UK, it's been a pretty amazing journey to watch the progression and evolution of Tool as a performing unit. It's amazing to see what they've achieved and accomplished in this time. However, I do think they seem to have hit a bit of a bump or at some sort of crossroads creatively. People change, things naturally progress, evolve, die, etc and obviously Tool of the Undertow/AEnema/Lateralus era is no longer the Tool of the current 10,000 days(which is close to 5 years old anyway!) and the new album could be light years away from the previous 10,000 days. With Maynard having his fingers in so many pies and his passion seemingly now all things wine, I wonder what effect this has on creating the new Tool album. Either way I'm still looking forward to see what they come up with for their new album.

Looking forward to seeing them at the Melbourne BDO and pretty pumped for the Melbourne sideshow at the Myer Music bowl as I've got a great seat up close!

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Feel free to critique/flame/agree/disagree I welcome it all ;^)

Hopefully catch up with a few of you guys at the Melb BBQ before the show.

Best.