(edit: I love tool, I loved the experience. My review is simply that - a review. I don't mean to say that I don't love, and thank, tool.)

Ever since the coachella show last year I was thinking "man, I hope they add some better material to their setlist," and since then there have only been a few additions (i believe the only additions after the first month or two have been the very recent flood and pushit; though there might be one or two others skipping my mind).

I don't want to offend anybody, but I've been waiting for my chance to put in my two cents, and since there's a "don't post if you weren't at the show" rule, this is my first chance to do so.

My biggest question is does the band have no taste in their own music, or are they actually (to quote mjk himself) "sucking up to the man?" Where are all of the best songs? What happened to the grudge, third eye, disposition > reflection, eulogy, h, parabola, triad, etc.? It's just my own opinion that the current setlist is weak, but the point is that no matter what setlist they choose to go with there's a good amount of people that will think it's weak. If you want to please your fans you need to change the show up a little.

Now, to be fair, tool does put a ton of work into their live shows, so it would be impossible to change the setlist as much as many other bands do; but, all the same, after a year + i don't think it's too much to ask for a fresh batch of 10 to 12 different songs (they've got plenty of good ones now; can't they switch it up?)

My biggest complaint about the performance is that tool was scheduled to play from 9:00 until 11:30. When i first saw this i thought "holy shit, a 2 1/2 hour tool show, this is going to be epic"... I figured "they could play the entire setlist that they've been using and still have 45 minutes leftover to do some rarer material." Imagine my disapointment when the band walked off stage at 10:45.

This show wasn't special at all. It was exactly like every other show they've played in the past year +, with such minor exceptions that it's not worth mentioning (except the lateralus which, i must say, was great). The performance was tight and the lights were fucking phenomenal, I just wish the band would put more thought into the music side of being musicians; plus, I lose respect for any musician that doesn't take advantage of having the privelage to play 2 and 1/2 hours at the country's biggest festival (even if they hadn't added any new material to the setlist, they could have still filled in the 45 minutes with pushit, right in two, and one or two of the other couple songs that they've played recently).

P.S. To continue my rant, I will tell you to consider what was mentioned earlier. No synth jamming, no lost keys, no extended schism or stinkfist. They had 45 minutes left to do whatever they wanted, and what did they choose to do? Walk off the stage.