Allrightythen-

After Jakob's 1st song Adam came out and was having a look at them on the side of the stage near his guitar guru who, from a distance, oddly looks like BMB without the bob cut. Some people spotted him and started pointing/taking pictures. He then ducked down into a position which looked like he was either hiding or, as it happened, grabbing this fluorescent orange thing from a cabinet... the same color as the security guards. I thought he was going to pull a shifty and get dressed up as one to come out and get a better view. He went back behind the stage and didn't see him for the rest of the song.

So Jakob was pounding away- highly recommended that everyone takes the opportunity to see these guys- and out from Adam's side of the stage, commando styles, crawls a person dressed up in a scooby doo'esque swamp monster costume. Does a few scrambles around the drum kit and ends up over towards Justin's gear. Someone is waiting there, with a... guess what?... Bass. Still crouched and now a little obscured behind some cabinets this swamp wookie is armed with a Bass Guitar... with a spiral on its strap.

Enter now another odd looking character- a guy with a fluorescent orange security vest over his head with what appears to be a Les Paul Silverburst. There you have it. Adam and Justin on stage with Jakob. They were playing a breakdown on one of their songs and Adam whacked out some soundscapes. Justin in his wookie costume chimed in with some resonant thunder and in less than 5 mins they were off again.

Rynne was there taking snaps of the whole night so perhaps we will be lucky enough to see some of the evening. The ones she took up on Danny's kit would have looked awesome with the amphitheater crowd, not too dissimilar to red rocks... minus the red.... and the rocks. Yeah.

I'll spare you the comments about Third Eye being played etc, but some other interesting moments of the night were, as already mentioned, about 2 mins before the lights went off Alex and Alison Grey walked out to take their seats. Such a peaceful looking dude. Very surreal seeing him there, and great to see them well recovered and enjoying a holiday in Melb.

Kudos to Junior for a tremendous night on the lights. Little issue with Jambi flame intro but who cares. The intermission was intense and it's certainly worth paying attention and getting lost in the geometric evolutions.

Yes Adam messed up a little towards the end of Right in Two and it got quite messy for a while, but in an odd kind of way this added a live aspect to the performance which made it a little better... if that makes sense?

Their intro to Vicarious was tending towards Flood (or Intolerance?), but then it went the other way. The unusual thing about playing this song so early in the set is it went from not too many lights and visuals to the full tilt laser show which previously had been at the end of the night. MJK played some new harmonies in it which sounded neat.

Schism and Stinkfist extensions were new'ish in some regards. Lateralus intro was also mixed up a little bit by Adam.

Jason from Jakob came on for the breakdown of Lateralus and was joined by a chap whose name I missed but I think MJK said he was part of his Puscifer legion. Matt maybe? He was in a Mankini. A Borat Mankini.

The whole show was wonderful. My seat in the stalls made for an excellent and intimate encounter. I was in GA last time and it was 2 hours spent looking over other taller people's shoulders and barely seeing anything. This time around was an altogether different experience.
The crowd was outstanding in the stalls- credit must be given to whoever came up with the toolarmy presale idea. Thank you, and I hope the band enjoyed playing to a group of people who were more interested in absorbing the evening than moshing about or watching the gig through the screen of their phone.

I knew (more or less) what their set list was going to be so no complaints there. My thoughts go out to the guy who was gagging for Intolerance after the MEL BDO. You've got two more chances buddy... Good luck.

All in all, a fantastic night.

Peace out.