slugg

I have seen Tool live only 3 times; living in Eastern Washington (Spokane, to be exact) makes it hard to get tickets and get to Seattle when they play there. On their last tour they actually played in Spokane-- at the time I worked Graveyard and had heard nothing about it until I woke up one afternoon to find the tickets next to me on my pillow. Anyway, the first time I saw them was at the Gorge for Lollapalooza. If I remember correctly, The Prodigy was supposed to play their last night on the tour at the Gorge, but left the tour one day early. Anyway, Tool played seemingly forever, and the ambience of the setting, the huge crowd, and the awesomeness of Tool's music and presentation are something I thought would never be topped. Until Sunday, the 27th of August, 2006, anyway.

I had no illusions that Tool would play in Spokane again; last time here our 11,000 seat arena didn't sell out, among other things. So when I heard that they would play the Gorge, and when, I was instantly excited at the possibility of seeing them again, and terrified at all of the obstacles life puts in the way of someone who is 36,married with three kids, and works six days a week, every week. But the stars aligned for me, in strange ways. My father, who was 88 years old and living with us, passed away in late June. Why is this a good thing? He was at the point where he could not hear, see, or really understand much of what was going on around him, and therefore couldn't be left alone for more than an hour or two. (Which is one reason my wife and I worked opposite shifts) The other major recent event in my life is that my son was born on July 12th. I purchased tickets for the show before he was born, but any sort of complication, separation anxiety, etc. would have left me to either go to the show alone (my wife struggled with leaving her newborn behind for that long up until the moment we left for the concert, even though her mother was watching the kids at our house and is quite capable) or give my wife's ticket to someone else. Without going into great detail, going to the concert without her would have almost wrecked the experience for me; we saw them together both of the other shows I've seen, etc. But it all worked out, and I am still stunned.

The venue is indescribable; if you even see pictures, it cannont reproduce what it is like to be there. When the lights went out and the band walked on stage, the crowd screamed so loud I think the stars shook. Then Maynard said "oh, yeah? Well Blah, Blah Blah..." and then Tool tore our asses out. I have read disappointments with the setlist; with the the bands attitude, etc., and all I can say is... Tool has grown up, some of their fans need to, as well. They seemed happy, played amazingly, and it was an amazing show. The lighters, Maynards comments to the crowd "Hi, we're TOOL. From LA, Tool...the Gorge, Gorge, Tool..." the whole "Wake up, you drunk Bitches" line, and his comment about the venue "You couldn't ask for a better view... in the middle of a vineyard, no less." All added to an amazing experience that I will treasure for.... however long it takes until I see them live again. And although my wife cried when we left our newborn behind to go to the show, by the end of the show she was crying for an altogether different reason.

Today is our wedding anniversay, so I need to have some flowers sent to her....

Our son's name is Mason. She wouldn't go for Maynard (She wanted his first name to start with an "M" for family reasons, so it was worth a shot...), she said "With a name like Maynard, unless you're famous you're fucked"