Music: May 2006 Archives

Wow.

Just, wow. Another great Tool show. True to the performance in Seattle on Tuesday, and similar to the Coachella show on Sunday, Tool played a tight set, demonstrating tremendous energy. There was no opening act, and on this warm-up tour, the venues are being kept small (the Paramount apparently holds something over 2000 people). The time listed for the concert was "7:30", but I assumed that meant that the doors opened at 7:30. I stepped into the venue at 7:50, just as the opening song started!

The outside of the Paramount Theatre. After the show was over, the Marquee had already been reconfigured for R. Kelly.

Holy crap, I almost missed part of the show! I left work a little before 6, and did some "creative driving" to try and beat traffic, which combined with BART, got me to Oakland when it did. Thankfully, I made it to my seat in time. My seat, for being a last-minute ticket, was actually pretty decent. I was on the ground level, fairly far back, but dead center. Seeing as how the Paramount isn't very big, however, there really aren't any "bad" seats in the place. I was much closer to the stage than for Coachella, that's for sure!

Without further ado, here is the setlist:

1. Lost Keys (Blame Hoffman)
2. Rosetta Stoned
3. Stinkfist
4. The Pot
5. Forty-Six & 2
6. Schism
7. Jambi
8. Eon Blue Apocalypse
9. The Patient
10. Sober
11. Lateralus
12. Vicarious
13. Ænema

This is basically the same setlist as Coachella, with Lost Keys and Rosetta Stoned tacked onto the beginning. There was no encore, but Tool did take a short break (2-3 minutes) after Lateralus.

Maynard came out sporting jeans and a mohawk, carrying a megaphone on a shoulder strap (which I never did see him use...). After Rosetta Stoned, he donned a cowboy hat, which he wore for the rest of the show. In addition, during Schism and Vicarious, I spied Maynard messing around with a keyboard of some sort. I believe I also saw Adam and even Danny getting into the act as well, but I am not as sure.

Camera phones suck, but you should be able to make out the relative size and position of the video displays. This was taken during Lateralus, I think.

They are doing some interesting things with the video screens on this tour, as you can see in the image above. They have evolved to four separate screens, each of equal size. They are placed evenly at the back of the stage. What is interesting, however, is that the displays vary from working independently to "teaming up". I saw images that took up 2, 3, and even all 4 of the displays. Tool tends to use more of the displays in tandem for the songs that have actual video content (like Schism, for example), to great effect.

Overall, Maynard wasn't as talkative as he was at Coachella. Here is an incomplete list of his between-song banter:

• "Those were, some songs. Coming up: more songs."
• "Peewee's Playhouse. Always a blast."
• Before playing Sober, he said "Little bit of OGT".
• He tried telling a story about how his grill was stolen when he looked away, and then he told a cop, but the cop was stolen when he looked away. "Tough town", I believe he said. It didn't come off well, however due his mic cutting out in the beginning.

A shot of the crowd, as Tool leaves the stage.

Overall, I am pleased with 10,000 Days - I am growing increasingly fond of it with every listen. Three of the songs on there, The Pot, Jambi, and Vicarious are extremely good, and play quite well live. But what is really surprising, is how well The Patient holds up. That song is crazy-good, and nearly upstaged the entire night.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Tool, 10,000 Days

The really good thing that happened today is that I managed to secure a ticket to tomorrow's Tool show in Oakland, CA. After getting shutout when tickets went on sale, I saw that scalped tickets were going for insane prices, so I decided not to buy.

But, after seeing them at Coachella, and listening to 10,000 Days nonstop since yesterday morning, I found myself clicking around craigslist a whole bunch while at work today.

Up until around 6 PM, all of my scalping attempts had failed - in spite of the fact that I was willing to go as high as $200 for one ticket. Luckily, a member of the Tool community noticed that Ticketmaster (of all people) had released some more tickets on their website.

So, like some sort of rocket with wrists, I shot in there and scooped up a ticket. No over-inflated scalpers premium, no worries about the ticket being fake. In a word, Awesome.

This is the one time that I have been glad to pay all of Ticketmaster's fees!

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Tool, 10,000 Days, Ticketmaster

After a long, hot, and tiring day at Coachella, it was finally time for Tool, to send the crowd home happy. The started about 20 minutes later than their scheduled start time, due to what appeared to be techincal difficulties. Thankfully, once the show got under way, Tool didn't seem to experience any other technical difficulties (as opposed to a lot of the other bands playing at Cochella).

In typical Tool fashion, the band commandeered the large displays on either side of the Coachella main stage, in order to display Tools' graphics and videos. Given the lack of magnification (that the big displays provided for the other bands), this means that, because I was so incredibly far away from the stage, there is no way that I could see the band.

The Setlist:

1. Stinkfist
2. The Pot
3. Forty-Six & 2
4. Jambi
5. Schism
6. The Patient
7. Sober
8. Lateralus
9. Vicarious
10. ænema

In all, they played just a bit under 80 minutes. My impression of the setlist is that it provided a pretty even balance between Ænima, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days (3 songs a piece), which was nice. I was worried that it would be crazy-10,000 days heavy. Worried, because I hadn't heard the album yet at that time (I actually restrained myself from downloading it -- shocking, I know). I was somewhat surprised that they played "Sober" - I was hoping that they would be able to put that song to bed. But I guess it is still a crowd pleaser, and we all know that Tool loves pleasing its crowds. Overall, I think that I was happiest during "The Patient". That song is just so amazing, especially when played loud (which the Cochella PA certainly was). I also liked ænema as a closer, especially considering the fact that the concert was right around where the hypothetical "Arizona Bay" would be.

The video displays continue to complement the music well. Overall, a lot of the material was similar to what I saw on the last Lateralus tour. For example, the corresponding video was played for each song that has one. The differences for the Coachella show included more of Alex Grey's artwork (particularly the cover head from 10,000 days), as well as more female images. I believe that during "The Patient", there was a shot of a woman looking into camera, much as if she were in a photo booth. The image was cast in a green tint, and looping up and down - like when the vertical hold is messed up on your TV.

Maynard was reasonably chatty, with his latest batch of Maynardisms:

• "Welcome hippies. I smell patchouli!"
• "Welcome to our first show in many years. We wanted to take it down a notch, keep it small and intimate, invite a few friends. Welcome. But you dude - you can put your fuckin' clothes back on, you're bummin' me out. Got lost on the way to Burning Man."
• "New album comes out tomorrow at midnight. I know you fuckers all downloaded it already. [crowd cheers]. Do me a favor, I'm trying to buy this, gold nugget shaped like a piece of popcorn for a ring. So I need you to buy a bunch of records so I can afford that. Big 'ole gold nugget. That's four of 'em. Then when I hit you in the face for taking my photo, it'll look like someone hit you with a bowl of popcorn. Help me out, willya? I'm destitute."
• "Had enough? [crowd yells "No!"] Good. We've come to paper, scissors, rock you. I wrote that."
• Before playing "Vicarious", he said "Single".
• "Hope you all enjoyed yourslves. Hope you all got a chance to go in the VIP tent. 'course you all did right? It's fuckin' L.A., right? Everybody's fuckin' VIP. Can I get a witness?"

Overall, it was another great performance from Tool. I would say that Tool's live show is relatively mature at this point - as evidenced from how little things have changed from Lateralus to 10,000 Days. I expect that they will make some minor tweaks for the subsequent 10,000 Days touring, but I think that the basic format will remain the same. Which is totally fine - Tool has evolved into a comfortable place, and there is nothing wrong with that.

All it leaves for me to do is continue to hope (in vain, most-likely) for something from Undertow other than "Sober". :)

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Tool, Coachella

How do you summarize an exhausting, exhilarating, amazing, sun stroked, mind blowing day at Coachella? I've been trying to figure it out, but there was so much that happened, that it seems like there really is no way. I'll see if I can blog myself out of this hole over the course of the next several days.

Maybe I'll start with this:

Carrie on the big screen at the Coachella main stage

The executive summary: Sleater-Kinney brought the true rock (sorry Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Massive Attack provided the must stunning and engaging performance of the night, closely followed by Tool, who brought the house down at the end.

But it was an incredibly long and hot day, and I'm tried from all of my travels (and that little thing that happened on Saturday), so this will have to stand for now.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Tool, 10,000 Days, Coachella, Massive Attack, Sleater-Kinney