Evaporated

This was my 3rd Tool show this tour and it was fucking awesome! The stage show is better if you are up high because the whole stage is a projection for the visuals, which were stronger for some songs than others. Jambi, Right in Two, and Vicarious stood out for me for the visual effect. Jambi had all the Sun and Orange and Red imagery is racing over the band Some of the other songs like Stinkfist and the The Pot didn’t seem have a good visual concept and mostly relied on lights changing to various rhythms of the songs, which was cool, but a waste of the stage set up after you see what they did with Jambi, Right in Two, Lateralus, Vicarious, and Rosetta Stoned. (No Lost Keys though! I love that intro!) The imagery really goes along with the song, though some of it confused me. I have the sense that stage show is a work in progress and if they tour the US next year should be even better.

While I am disappointed (along with a lot of other people) that they did not play a longer set, or change it up that much from their previous shows (I saw the Oakland warm up show and the Fresno show) it was still worth it and the set is growing. Rosetta Stoned had a lot more space than the previous two sets, and Schism rocked harder. They have added some extended jams as well.

Maynard was irritated with the moshing which looked like it got pretty wild at some points. He joked that the moshers, “Just liked rubbing up against other guys.” Maynard pantomimed jacking off at the crowd as he leaving the stage. Was that directed as the moshers as well? At any rate it was funny.

Another nice thing. The band gave the people who were as far to the side as possible some extra attention when bowing after they finished the set. It looked like those people had really shitty seats. Tool does seem to be going out of their way to give a good experience to as many people as possible. Even if it’s not exactly what you want, it is pretty fucking awesome.