jpmanson

Setlist:

Stinkfist
The Pot
46&2
Jambi
Schism
Rosetta Stoned
Opiate
Sober
Lateralus
Vicarious
Ænema

A few months ago when I heard about this show, I convinced my mom to buy me tickets as a birthday present(today is my birthday). I asked her to get me 2 tickets for the hillside seating. I chose to sit on the hill because I have found from previous concerts I have attended at the gorge the hill was just an overall better experience, also with previous Tool concerts I found that being in front is overrated. If you are in the pit for a Tool show, you will miss out on what I think are the best parts of the show.

I decided to take my cousin Howard because I recently found out that he is a huge Tool fan. We decided to get there pretty early so we could find a good place to sit. We thought that getting there around 5:30 would give us enough time for that so we left my house right around 5:00. Once we arrived we found a place center stage at the bottom on the hill, right behind the pathway at the bottom of the hill. Shortly after that I went looking for a friend of mine that said she was going to be working in a beer stand. I was unable to find her so I didnt drink anything. After an hour or so, Howard gave me money to get a tool shirt as a birthday present, so I went and bought one. I also bought a hat.

Anyway, around 8:00 Isis came on and played for about 30 minutes. I wasnt too impressed but I think that if I listened to them without the anticipation for Tool I would really like them. Their music was well played and well written. While they were playing we realized that our seats werent that great because a bunch of people were stopping on the pathway in front of us and blocking the entire stage from our view. Before this point security had been coming through askign these people to move, but after that this stopped happening. We then decided to find a place a little further down the hill. We found a spot right at the fenceline slightly left of the stage. While we were sitting there, a woman behind us was talking about wanting them to play Third Eye. I disappointed her by handing her a setlist that I had figured they would play(judging from the 5 or 6 most recent shows). It turned out that I was completely correct about the setlist.

They started the show with Stinkfist, and I was slightly disappointed that they did not have large screens up showing Adam's videos. This disappointment went away very quickly when they played The Pot. It turns out that the entire stage was their screen for the video, it was projected onto the floor beneath them. When I saw this I was extremely happy that I had gotten hillside tickets. I was also impressed with The Pot, that is the one song from the new album that I had still not been able to really enjoy. Much like The Patient from Lateralus, I gained a new appreciation for it after seeing it played live. Maynard wore a cowboy hat and had chaps and a large belt buckle and probably cowboy boots on while singing and riding the mic stand like a bull or something, that was quite interesting to see.

During Jambi, a guy went right in front of us and acted like a complete moron, he was shaking the fence and just acting like a drunk idiot. He then claimed that he was going to bust his way into the seating area and get up on top of the control booth. During Schism we actually saw the guy on top of that booth dancing like a freak, it was kinda funny. It took 4 security people to finally get the guy to come down, he was very agile and unpredictable - that helped him get away for at least 10 minutes. Besides that there wasnt anything particularly noteworthy for a person that has seen them live a few times before - until they played Rosetta Stoned. For that one, Maynard wandered around the stage like he was searching for something. He bent down in several places and seemed to be playing with something on the ground, I wasnt close enough to really see what it was though. Before playing RS, Maynard yelled "wake up you drunk fuckers." Later, before Lateralus, they said they were done, and sat on the stage for maybe 5 minutes. It was the closest I had seen of them doing an encore.

When playing Lateralus, a string of lights behind the stage came on and more lights were brought up from the floor. They then had something of a laser show which was quite a surprise for me.

I kinda feel sorry for the people that paid extra for floor seats, I know a lot about the setup for the Gorge from working there a few years ago. These people could not have gotten the full visual experience of the show. There is no way they could have seen the stage beneath the band members. Personally, I thought that was the most unique and interesting part of the show.

Oh yeah, i dont recall exactly, but maynard said something about the view, and that it was amazing for the number 1 venue in the world.. something like that, i am not sure, i do know he calle dhte gorge the "number 1" venue though.

sorry, one more before i am done.. before lateralus, maynard said that the set was dedicated to someone who had a birthday today i think the guys name was keith something. i forget. after that he said they also dedicated the set to their favorite word "vagina"

one more thing, right before stinkfist, maynard said "blah blah blah" i may have heard this one wrong, but it seemed like that is exactly what he said.

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“I got drunk on whiskey when I was ten and I got so sick I hated even the smell of the stuff. I couldn’t even touch it until I was thirteen.”