electribe1

I have just returned from the show so I have decided to write about it now so it is still fresh in my mind. This was my 5th Tool show.

The pre-show

Wednesday May 17, 2006 - I wasn't feeling very well when I woke up or at work today. I left with sick time at noon and came home to rest up before the show. I left for the Tower Theatre around 3:30pm. I know it seems early considering the 8:30 show time, but one of my favorite parts of going to any show is standing outside the venue in line and talking with other fans. I always find it interesting to hear stories of how people got into different bands, travel stories, stories about trouble obtaining tickets, and just generally shooting the shit.

I arrived at the Tower around 4:30 and found that I was the 6th person in line in behind a nice couple from Philly and in front of a really cool guy named Josh who drove all the way from South Carolina for the show. He said it took him 11 hours on the way up. His story reminded me of the days when I had to travel great distances to see the bands I wanted to see. Tool is only playing a hand full of dates before heading to Europe and Philly was the closest to this guy and he still made the trek...that's a fan.

I had 2 extra tickets to get rid of due to circumstances earlier in the week being what they were. I had one guy coming from WV to trade me for a Radiohead ticket...he showed up right when he said he would and we made the exchange. The other ticket was promised to a girl that contacted me via Craigslist from Jersey. I told her she could have it if she got there before the doors opened. The doors were opening and she was nowhere in sight. As I was being rushed in the by people behind me I had to make a quick deal. I ended up swapping Josh(the dude from SC) my closer extra ticket for his regular ticket and I sold the regular ticket to this guy who came to the venue in hopes to find a ticket but got shut out. I was talking to this guy when I first got to the theatre and he looked like he was about to burst into tears because he was on the verge of being shut out to see his favorite band in the world. Due to all the scalping that had been going on he just couldn't find a ticket. The guys face lit up when I let him have the extra ticket I got from Josh at face value. I was glad he got to see the show. He deserved it.

Josh and I went to our seats and we were STUNNED at how good the seats were. We were 8 rows back from the stage and close enough to smell what the band had for lunch. The Tower is a fantastic venue and I would like to see more shows there...beautiful, classy place. We were getting very excited to see Tool play and we settled in for a tense experience.

The curtain literally went up at 8:45 - no opening band...just straight up Tool. If you have never seen Tool play live...I highly recommend it. It is one of the most rewarding experiences I've had. Every time I see them it just makes me feel so good.

The Review

When the first bass chords began to ring out...all the normal problems of everyday life and the sickness I had been feeling all day just dropped away. And for the next hour and 45 minutes I was engaged in an utterly communal, functional, modular, collective experience with every person in the place. The crowd seemed to move as one while 4 amazingly well rounded musicians and human beings wove a tapestry of swirling, churning, living, breathing, harmonious music that took life on stage and reached out to the hearts minds and(as is always the case with Tool) eyes of everyone in attendance. They played old favorites and new gems and all the while I was in awe, just as I always have been, at how these 4 people seem to come together from the corners of the earth - each at a contrasting end of the spectrum - to form a symbiotic existance for as long as they decide.

Everyone in the Tower Theatre was steamrolled by a freight train tonight, and the experience was worth all the hassle, the bullshit, the wrangling, and the headaches. This is not a night I will soon forget.

The Aftermath

I know it seems cliche, but Tool is truly no ordinary band. Most bands follow a formula of record, tour, tour some more, do a live album, tour, make a video, tour, go to rehab, do a comeback album, die. The members of Tool have a vast array of projects and interests outside of the band that keep their attention in off time and allow for time between albums to stretch and to let people digest their latest offering. Most albums are a total of 50 minutes..45 minutes...some are 30 minutes in lenghth total. Tool continually pushes the boundaries of music by recording these huge sonic landscapes that can't be taken in during a single sitting. Tool records are generally 77:59 seconds long...with the newest CD's allowing for 78 minutes of audio. It takes some people months and years to fully absorb a new Tool record. I still listen to past Tool albums and find new things that I haven't heard in the last 5,000 times I have listened. The band supports the process of digestion by allowing things to marinate for 5 or 6 years before coming back together to start again. It's a unique process that really sets Tool apart in the rock world as a band that doesn't play up or down to their fans, but rather works with the fans so that both they and the band have the best experience possible. Tool has always been very vocal on the subject of personal emotional growth and they show this by bucking the system of normal forms of promotion, print ads, video interviews and such, not worrying about sales and promotion(because they really don't do much promo). It is seldom to never that you see Tool on television. In their own music videos they don't even show their faces...they want the music and imagery associated with it to speak for them. Their official website doesn't even say much about the new album...because they know it doesn't have to. They just leave it to the people who love the music to spread the word. And it must be working because their new album is #1 in the world right now.

I would be hard pressed to find a experience that tops seeing Tool in Indianapolis in 2001 for me, but this comes very close. So, if this wasn't the best show I've ever been to, then it was an extremely close second. I had a great time and I feel really priveledged to have been a part of the event.

The best part? I get to do it all again on Friday night when I see Tool play the City Center Theatre in NYC! It shall be glorious. Stay tuned.

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Prying open my brown eye...