I went to both amazing Red Rocks shows (Monday 6/28 and Tuesday 6/29) - my 33rd and 34th (I think) Tool shows since 1996. Here are some highlights from my perspective, on both shows.

Flew from SF Bay Area to Denver Monday afternoon to meet two good buddies (one a Denver local) and see the shows. I’d never been to Red Rocks but always wanted to – and what a way to experience the venue: with my favorite band. We went out to the venue early to pick up our will call tickets – we were fortunate to get 6th row seats for Monday! We had some extra tickets (further back in the venue) that we sold to lucky and grateful fans at face value – fun to hook up die hard fans.

What an amazingly beautiful site! We got inside in time to catch Wovenhand. I liked what I heard on myspace, but didn’t really get into the set. I was really excited to see Tool – it had been too long. I love hearing Third Eye live, and hadn’t heard it for years so this was an amazing way to start the show. Very cool visuals for this Third Eye – some of which were projected on the red rocks, which made for cool texture.

Maynard asked, “how many of you are 25?” and several folks raised their hands. “You were five years old when we wrote this” and they went right into Intolerance. Undertow is still my favorite album, as a whole– so I really got into this it, but I could tell that not everyone knew the song.

I think they’ve played 46&2 at most of the 34 shows I’ve been to, and it always kicks ass. Danny Carey is amazing on the drums– you can’t tell he just turned 49, he’s fit and powerful.

They closed Monday with Lateralus/Aenima – a great combo. Before the last song, MJK said, “I have a joke for you; a priest, a rabbi and a…. Hey, hey, hey, hey” right into Aenima – pretty funny actually.

Tuesday night we were in the 25th row and more central than Monday. We drove up to the upper north lot and went to the visitor’s center, where there’s a cool Tool display from their 2001 show, and ate dinner at the Ship Rock Grille. This is at the very back of the venue and has a great view of the backside of the hills on which the venue sits. As the sun was going down, we saw lots of folks hiking up the steep hills to get free, albeit distant, seats for the show.

Darren and I picked up limited edition posters, unique for each night, with art by Adam Jones. Darren paid extra for a signed one. The cool thing is that these two different posters are actually a matched set. There’s symmetry between them, and it turns out that one of the well dressed though spooky figures is Justin and the other is Shelee - it’s a wedding portrait since they just got married a few weeks ago. Nice artwork and good quality prints.

I’m glad we got to see them from the 6th row (Monday) and the 25th row (Tuesday). I think I preferred being back a little bit as it allowed us to really take in all the visuals, which were quite cool. I didn’t care for Dalek, so we took time to walk around the venue and see different features at the site. This time, when Tool came on, Maynard was sporting a mohawk, which must have been under his hat on Monday. Danny wore a Kansas basketball shirt instead of the Denver Nuggets on Monday.

Before the show, we were speculating if there’d be a change in set list. Darren, incredibly, called it that we’d lose The Patient (and something else) and gain Flood and Right in Two. We were amazed that he was right! Right in Two is amazing, especially live. I’ve had the fortune of experiencing this song 3 times now, live, and I don’t think they’ve played it very much at all. This was the first time I heard it with Intension at the front. With that song, I’ve once again heard them play every one of their album songs live, at some point. It’s clearly a technically challenging song to play, especially for Danny and Justin. Mid-way through the song we noticed Justin shaking and stretching out his hand after shredding though the song.

I like it that they bring in the opening band to shred with them during Lateralus. It was kinda different for Dalek since they had some kind of digital turntable. I couldn’t really hear much of what they were playing – some scratching. It must have been intimidating for them as MJK was walking around them, checking it out, and as my buddy Nate put it, “looking like a disapproving teacher.” But Maynard was cool and shared his wine (which he drinks straight from the bottle while on stage) with both Dalek guys. They left the stage and Maynard had a look like “that’s it”.

Another funny thing Maynard did was start the show by walking around with a cell phone taking pictures of his band-mates. This seemed like a bit of a F-you since they had put a strict no recording policy where cell phone picture takers could get thown out (after one warning). I’ve heard or read MJK say they don’t like crappy quality photos or video floating around on the web – can’t blame them. He introduced Aenima, the closer, by reciting some really fast gibberish, which made us laugh.

A cool sight on the way out of the venue, from the top/back, was seeing all the hikers streaming down the hills with their flashlights on – after getting a free show.

I think these two shows are my favorite pair seen to date, largely because of the amazing venue and the great friends I experienced it with. I especially liked the set list on the second night. The only other show pair I’ve seen that competes with these was the two nights at the Hollywood Palladium, back in 1998, where they played their entire music library through Aenima.