First, I'm a fan of Woven Hand and I've been trying to catch one of their shows for almost 2 years now and have never managed to do so. When I saw who the opener was in the NOLA and Houston reviews, I immediately stuck to the ceiling. Woven Hand isn't for everyone, but I can assure you, they're highly respected in the music scene and have been around a long time -- if you enjoyed them, also look into 16 Horsepower (David Eugene Edwards' previous band -- he's the singer/songwriter of WH).

Second... Tool kicked ass. Wow. I was Section 1 on the floor, Row K, directly in front of Adam (one of my favorite guitarists, so that was an added treat). This was my... um, well, I'm somewhere up in the mid-teens for shows attended going back to the tail-end of their Undertow tour, I've officially lost count. This would've easily been a Top 3 show for me if the sound had been better (Maynard was muffled and Adam was way too trebly with too little low-end crunch). Woven Hand sounded great, so I don't think it was the acoustics, I just think Tool's sound guy needed to make some adjustments after the show started and failed to do so. It happens, thankfully it wasn't to an extent it ruined the show.

I loved the set list. To hear 'Intolerance' again live after so long was great, and they nailed it. I really enjoyed the extended editions of certain songs as well as the minor tweaks to old stand-bys.

I thought the energy overall was great; everyone around me was very much into the show, and the band seemed to be as well. It was nice to see them bring back the Lateralus-era side screens with great visuals. Those moving screens they had above the stage were very cool, I especially liked it when they would come down behind Adam and Justin (talk about having to worry about missing your cues, heh -- "So... Justin... listen man you might want to ease off on the beer, mmkay? Cuz if you step back at the wrong time, well... ouch" -- loved Justin's beer bottle salute during 'Lateralus' to the people in the 'obstructed view' area -right next to him-, you guys scored with those seats; I'd love to be able to see Danny play an entire show from that angle).

BTW, concerning Maynard's slippers, they were the Monty Python Killer Bunny slippers -- you can find them at ThinkGeek, I've owned a pair for a few years (they run small, so if you order a pair, get a size bigger than you normally would). It would've killed if they had busted out 'Disgustipated' live while he was wearing those. "Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen? Can I get a hallelujah?"

Going to see them again tonight in OKC, really looking forward to it, though not to another night of driving, heh. Need food, need sleep, then more Tool.