Quote:
Originally Posted by X-51
My friends and I drove from Columbus Ohio to see this show. I was so glad Maynard did not cancel. We had general admission tickets and were front row, My girlfriend held on to the rail in front of me. Aside from the rent-a-cop security jumping into the crowd every few minutes to deal with people taking pictures with phones, the concert rocked. I was so glad i got to hear 46&2. It was our first Tool show and we enjoyed it immensely. What was the deal with all of them sitting down in the middle of the show? Probably the best show i have ever been to. I am going to try to snag tickets to the Columbus show tonight. I wish they would have let me keep my ticket stub instead of this gay yellow "Allstate" wristband.
Tool - Rocks
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My take on "all of them sitting down in the middle of the show"? It was about 3/4's of the way through what would ultimately be the entire show. Thus, I think that was their "leave the stage for 5 minutes while everyone cheers hysterically before we come back out for our encore." Having seen hundreds and hundreds of shows from all types of bands, I can honestly say that that appeared to be another creative first for a very creative band. Instead of going to the wings, having a smoke and a beer and god knows what else rockstars do during that time while we're all cheering, they decided to just hang out on stage and absorb all the love directly from the fans. I think they played two or three more songs after their sit-down session, which would be about right to indicate a pre-encore break, followed by two or three encores. I have never ever seen another band or artist stay on stage for the entirety of that whole pre-encore ritual. Pretty clever I thought.
Overall, I have to say my one criticism of the band over the last 8 years or so (which was also represented in the second half of this Chicago show) is that they have moved too far away from their greatest strength (well-defined, 5 to 8 minute heavy "songs" proper), towards longer, less structured, lighter, what I can only perjoratively call "noodling" space jams. This was my sixth Tool show, begining back in 95' in Asbury Park, NJ on the Boardwalk, and I have been a devoted fan all the way through. Opiate, Undertow and even Aenima contained perfect examples of everything that those four guys excel at. Lateralus and 10,000 Days have moved in a direction I am less enthused about. I completely understand why it has happened, and completely respect all four of them for keeping things interesting to themselves. The level of their musicianship necessarily mandates that they change and evolve in order for them not to get bored and to fully utilize their gifts. But as a fan, I did and do prefer their original, more agressive compositions. Which, thankfully, can still always be found, even on the last two releases. They just seem like they are getting outnumbered these days by the "lighter" offerings, and that is reflected in the set lists. My only other criticism, and it really shouldn't be described as such becuase it is a true testament to how far above and beyond these guys are as musicians than almost anyone else out there today, is that some of their newest rhythms, song-structures and time signatures are so bizarre and so complex that they make it almost impossible to consistently bop/bang your head, snap your fingers or otherwise get physically into the songs live. There must have been at least 10 times in the second half of this show that I had to outright quit even trying to tap my foot to the rhythm becuase my brain was just hopelessly over-matched.