plaintive

First TOOL show I've ever been to, and hopefully not my last. It was seriously the best show I've seen in my life, and I didn't expect anything less than that.

My boyfriend and I were located in Section 124, row Q. We had perfect sight of the stage and could see everything, thank god. We weren't sure how good the seats were going to be, even though we saw an overview of the stadium on the Petersen Events Center website.

We were in the very front of the crowd to be let in the stadium. They separated males from females to be searched, and after I'd been searched, I made a remark to the girl behind me, something along the lines of.. "thank god that big burly dude didn't search us", and one of the security women replied with "You betta not have no fuckin' camera in ya pants, cuz if ya do, we'll be confiscatin' it!". Point being, my only gripe with the show was the Security. They were constantly around our area, because of the 3 guys smoking pot a row in front of us, but they weren't able to figure out where it was coming from. And who gives a shit if people had their cellphones out taking pictures? There weren't any flashes, so there weren't any disturbances to be made.

Now, onto the performance. I was really impressed with ISIS. I'd never seen them live before, and to be truthful, I'm not much of a fan other than listening to them once in a great while. I thought they sounded great. A lot of people around me seemed dumbfounded by them being a mostly instrumental band.

TOOL was everything I'd hoped they'd be live. Maynard, with his sarcastic remarks and all. As soon as I saw him walk out with his cowboy hat and boots, I almost lost it. I was hoping he would let loose on stage and dance around, which he did. The light show was incredible, and the backdrop with the images made everything complete.

The highlight of my night was when the band played 10,000 Days. It literally sent chills up my spine. The whole band was right on cue for that song. Another highlight was their last and final song, AEnema. The crowd went INSANE, especially my section and the section next to me, 123. I pretty much destroyed my voice for that song, trying my best to sing at the top of my lungs.

I'm still on a natural high from last night. It was utterly amazing in my opinion. I thought the stadium was a decent place for the show, even though it seemed to make the vocals echo a little bit. For the first two or three songs, Maynard was a bit difficult to hear, but from the middle to the end, I could hear perfectly.

Hopefully this won't be my last show, and I hope these guys continue to produce another few albums.

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I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks.