Waco Jesus

Wow, some of you need to chill the hell out and actually look at the situation before you get your panties in a wad.

I know how it is to be cancelled on due to a real bullshit reason - like the prima donna shit that some bands pull. Glen Benton of Deicide is a prime example of this type of crap. He'll cancel and not even give a reason. I've been to several other concerts where this has happened - those are bands who truely don't give a shit about their fans. They'll cancel one show and the rest of the tour because of a hissy fit the vocalist or guitarist threw.

It's really hard for me to sympathize with some fans who bitch and moan about a band cancelling or post-poning a date because of a legit reason. For Maynard, it more than likely was due to a sickness based on what I've heard about San Antone's date being post-poned and what a user here said, (paraphrasing) where they had to play a 20 - 30 minute guitar solo and Maynard didn't get to sing any of the songs. That would've downright dissapointed me because, to be honest, I don't want to go to a Tool show just to hear Adam wanking on his guitar for half an hour. He's not that spectacular of a guitarist, plus if I wanted to hear wanking, I'd go see Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Rusty Cooley or whatever. I'd go to NAMM or something. I went to Tool in 2002 to see Tool, not Adam. What I got was Tool - Maynard was awesome, and so was Adam and Danny. Plus the entire visual package. If I went to see Tool this time around with Maynard sick, I would've been severely dissapointed.

Let me relay an anecdote:

My father went to see Zeppelin back in their hey day. He saw them 3 times in Houston. According to him, the first two times were simply awesome - with the entire band jamming out and having a great time. The third time was severely dissapointing, why? Because Robert Plant was sick. Don't get me wrong, seeing John Bonham and Jimmy Page rocking out would've been great, but another vital part of the band is Robert Plant - his singing, voice, his trademark strutting around the stage. That's what a Zeppelin show was supposed to be, not just Page and Bonham jamming out for two hours, which is what happened, according to my dad. Page couldn't sing but some of the lyrics and he relied on the crowd to sing for him and some other time he would just scat. My dad had some friends along with him who told me the same story and they were all dissapointed.

That's what's happening with Tool, IMO. Why the hell go to go see Carrey and Jones? It's supposed to be Tool, with Maynard included. Maynard probably realized this after said show and decided he needed to recuperate. Good! Because I'm more than sure that there was probably more than a few fans in that audience that night who felt the same way my father did when he saw Zeppelin for the final time. If an artist truely cares about their fans, they'd do anything in their power to keep tip top shape, even if that means having to postpone or even cancel a show or two. Yeah, some fans will be butt hurt but I'm pretty sure the fans at the future show will really appreciate hearing a healthy Maynard rather than having the band cancel yet another date and have even more fans be butt-hurt cause of it.

As far as them not rescheduling, that could be a host of reasons. One could be that they couldn't reserve a new date, another would be that the promoter and the management (i.e. not the band) decided that there wouldn't be enough money in it to produce the show. I think a lot of people are neglecting the fact that there is a lot of money that needs to change hands before a show even goes on - most of that money doesn't even get in the hands of the band themselves. There's the road crew, the in-house crew, city (and perhaps state) permits, catering, management, owners of the venue, so on and so forth. Tool probably had their share secured, but there wouldn't have been enough to pay everyone else if ticket sales were shoddy. Another thing to keep in mind is the quality of the promotion in that particular city - by the looks of it, they did a bad job all around from booking in an untimely manner, bad promotions, ticket sales through exclusive outlets, etc.

And in any case, it's not like Tool are going anywhere soon! This is only their first leg of the US tour, then they'll go over seas for a while. Chances are they'll come back and do two or three more legs around the country like they did with the Lateralus tour.

In conclusion, everyone just needs to chill the fuck out and stop blaming the band for everything that goes awry - especially when something happens that's way beyond their control.