It seems that a lot of the negative response about the band's performance centers around the fact that Maynard is not being a frontman anymore. Granted, I remember the old days when Maynard was out front, and it was awesome. But back then, Tool didn't have the light show or the video screens like they do now. Tool, and Maynard especially, have never been ones to make it about themselves. They aren't in their videos. They give very few interviews. Now, they have the means to do the same thing with their stage show.

Last night I paid very little attention to what the band was doing onstage and it was awesome. I have to give some serious props to Junior, because the show was incredible. I think that Maynard has now become the "anti-frontman", which may just be the most punk rock rove that any singer can make. He stands in the back, hiding in the shadows. He changes his voice electronicly to suit the song. He doesn't want you to notice him, because there is so much cool shit going on all around him. Pay attention to the lights and the video, because its the best thing going today. Every other show I go to, the band makes it about themselves. They dance around the stage, talk shit, do long and intricate solos and we eat it up. We expect it from everyone. Sure, other bands have good light shows and use video walls, but it is more of an accent instead of the main focus. I believe that in future shows, Maynard may continue to hide even more. Reviews from 3 or 4 years from may include "we caught a glipmse of Maynard tonight!" My final point to this is that I can understand why we don't get certain older songs that require Maynard to be up front. It wouldn't work for this model. Maybe Junior is the frontman now!

Btw, was it just me, or did we get a couple snippets of new music last night? Specifically, the music the band played prior to Schism, Lost Keys and Vicarious. It was no more than a minute each, contained no riffs or real melodies, but the structure of the music didn't quite fit the songs that they preceded.

For all the people that tend to stay away from the boards before their show: because we knew the setlist, we knew that there would be nothing after Vicarious. The second Maynard exited stage right (again, anti frontman!) we were out, got to the car and were on Monroe Rd is less than 10 minutes AHEAD of the traffic. Most everyone was still hanging around waiting to hear hear Sober. The poor drunken rednecks in front of us were chanting it the whole evening.

All things considered, it was a great night, and I will definately be seeing them again.