This was my nineth Tool show.

I made it to the Nokia after driving from San Antonio to Dallas with memories of the night before still swirling around in my head. I went through the line and met up with several friends and my brother and had a good time roaming around the Nokia before the show started. Some of you may remember me as the guy who was in the men's bathroom after Tweak Bird's set with blood gushing out of my nose. Sorry about that. If any of you were the guys who asked me such questions as: Did I get in a fight? Did I snort too much coke? Do I have HIV? Did I get too excited for Tool? The answer is no, I have end-stage liver disease and cirrhosis. Random neverending nosebleeds are a normal occurrence for me. Please excuse me for not being able to answer your questions while you were taking a piss. Also thanks to the Nokia employee who hooked me up with some paper towels after no one wanted to offer a helping hand. But enough about that. I made a mad dash to my seat and made it just as the band was taking stage. It's hard to judge if I enjoyed this show more than the San Antonio show. The light and laser show seemed like they were scaled back, this might be due to the fact that the Nokia is much smaller than the AT&T Center. However I had a great seat on the Southwest Flight Deck, otherwise known as King's Row according to the signs in the venue. The new video during Forty Six & 2 was amazing, after the intro Justin turned around and stared back down into a skeleton-type creature that seemed to be looking back up at him from the floor projection. It was like he was staring into a mirror of death. Very cool. The videos during Rosetta Stoned seemed like they were different as well. Lateralus had the flying red phoenix instead of the newer video from San Antonio. The jams between songs were really great as usual, I remembered hearing a couple of them from the night before and previous Tool shows, however it seems like San Antonio had a jam that I'd never heard before, and Dallas did as well. Hopefully they were sneak peeks of new songs, just as the jams that ended up being parts of Vicarious and Wings/10,000 Days from the 11/16/02 show in Oklahoma City.

Looking forward to the next tour and album. Also looking forward to the Puscifer tour this fall. According to advertisements in the Nokia Maynard will be playing "a bunch in Texas," along with new music (album?) and live video (DVD?)

There is much more to look forward to.