The setlist may have been missing a couple of songs, but the show was definitely not "sub-par." Perhaps a better word for it was "incomplete," because the performance istelf was amazing. The band was not lazy or feeling routine; they put a lot of energy into it and their affection for the music and each other was clear.

There was a fight before the show. Apparently, a guy started viciously attacking a girl, pounding on her mercilessly. The crowd was not cheering the fight, but the efforts of bystanders to stop him. Police arrived and suddenly he feigned lamb-like compliance, and the crowd erupted in applause as they cuffed him. In a wonderful display of instant karma, he was hauled away literally seconds before the lights dropped to start the show. He missed the whole concert because he felt entitled to assault a girl--at a TOOL show, no less, where the band challenges violence and aggression and champions compassion and relationship. If he had done this only a minute later he would have gotten away with it in the darkness, too.

I agree, though, that I'm pretty sick of bands making hick/cowboy jokes at us every time we see a concert. If we were all a bunch of hicks and hillbillies, TOOL would not have sold out their fourth concert in a row here.

Oh, and if I did have one criticism of the show itself, it's that TOOL tends to get a bit heavy on the everlasting ambiant noise between songs. Tonight was no exception.