I don't even know where to begin. I'll start by stating that I split a Sweetart (with a drop of liquid) with a friend about an hour before the show. I figured half a drop would only "enhance" the experience. Our seats were in the First lower box on the right side. We got there at 7:30 and took our seats, which were fucking outrageous! Before the show it almost sounded like someone was tuning in each different freq on all speakers. I was starting to trip and that bass was rattling through me. My water I had sitting on the ledge looked like that one in Jurrasic Park, rippling up and looking just like a clear record spinning. I don't know what music they were playing before the show, but it sounded like some Lustmord mix. Then, they cut to "evil joe". That got me all excited, because I know the band is next.
Out walked Justin, the crowd goes wild. Adam walks out, crowd still going crazy. The both start playing LK and shortly Danny's giant self walks out. Again, crowd noise fights with speakers for authority. Danny starts playing, now Maynard comes out. I just realized that I have been on the awkward clang of an upward rollercoaster, and Maynard starts moving like a robot, pulls the CB from his megaphone and begins....
The rest, I really can't give you a play by play. Everything sort of started melting together at that point. All of the music seemed to blend from song to song. For a short time I felt like Danny was a puppet master, and those drums were his strings pulling on maynard the puppet. In a lot of instances I caught Maynard seemingly 'feeding' off of the drums. Then it switched to Justin pulling MJ's strings. Maynard would take back control and looked to be shifting gears on a rig. Watching Justin rock back and forth and stomp in rhythm with Danny was mesmerizing. It felt like more than audio was coming from Justin's instrument. Like it was boomerang and the notes were being thrown out into the air. The sound seemed to be flying around the room in a circular pattern, mindblowing. I COULDN'T stand. Wouldn't stand. It never occured for me to try. I loved the visuals. From my view MJ was standing perfectly in between the two screens. It felt like it meant something at the time. I'm sure he wasn't, but with the angle he was looking out, and the sunglasses he had on, I thought he was singing to me. For the first few songs, I couldn't even move. I really felt as if Maynard saw me out there in that box and noticed that I wasn't moving and only watching wide-eyed. It seemed to me that he was doing it to fuck with me. Testing my decision to trip on that fateful night. The last three songs really drew me in. I forgot the exact setlist (for my own good) and thought each song was a walkout song. All of them beat me into the back of my seat so much that, there may still be an imprint in it today.
I'm pretty sure Danny hit the gong in Sober. I remember watching him closely at the time that he turns and hit it. Also, on the intro to sober (I think) Danny was speaking into a mic. I could hear him and see his lips moving. I just couldn't make it out. I never knew Danny had vocals on anything. Maynard changed the lyrics to Schism (i think) to "cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of destruction" or maybe something else close, but I know I heard destruction instead of compassion. Adam had his shoes on the whole show. I managed to sneak a cam-corder in, but big brother wouldn't get away. Anyone with audio from this show, please PM it to me. Out of the five concerts I've been to including The Tabernacle, Atlanta May 15, 2001, this one blows the others out of the water, no question. Psychedelics enhance the hell out of TOOL (why didn't someone tell me?).
Did you see
someone tripping at the show?
gf