Tool Concert.... Wow

Molson Amphitheater, Sept 23. Tool.  WOW.

they played a kickass set, and the crowd was *loving* it.

the set was as follows:
-Stinkfist
-The Pot
-46 & 2
-Jambi
-Schism
-Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned
-Wings For Marie/10,000 Days
there was a huge break here when the lighters went up (more on that later)
Tool and the Audience Sang happy birthday to a girl named Carol
-Lateralus
-Vicarious
-Aenima

Highlights:
1: The Lighters.
the molson amphitheater holds 16000 according to their site, 9000 for seats and 7000 for lawns.  it was a completely sold out show.  now give 3/4 of those people lighters and have them all hold them up at once.  gives you some crazy chills just looking at the sea of lights.

2: Setlist
Perfect Setlist.  would have liked to see some older stuff or maybe Parabola.  but I couldn't have asked for a better set than they played.  blew my mind.

3: Parts Of Songs
During Stinkfist partway through they threw in the opening bit of Prison Sex.

The Pot was pulled off really well.  maynards voice didn't quite sound the same for the intro "who are you to wave your finger" bit.  but the basslines through the song were so solid.  sounded really polished.

46 and 2 got a huge crowd reaction from the opening stuff.  great song and the visuals for it were really neat.  a lot of evolution stuff in there.

Jambi was the least visually stunning song they played.  most of it was just fire.  the song was well played though.

Schism.  what can I say..... you play that opening bass riff in front of 16000 people.  you've gotta expect a reaction like that.... they played the music video for the song on the screens, so while still being trippy it wasn't original really.  the song was played pefectly.  and they sped up the breakdown part near the end to about double speed.  I don't know how dannys arms didn't fall off from the drumming.

Lost keys didn't have the nurse/doctor bit.  but rosetta stoned was done quite well, considering all the filters and stuff they have to use to get maynards voice like that.  the visuals were really cool.  had somebody running along a desert road. lots of flashes of stuff like pyramids and equations etc.

wings pt. 1 and 2... a lot of people complained about it being too slow.  I agree its more of a personal listening song.  but damn did they pull it off.  they lit up the roof (open truss stuff) with lazers and it looked like there was an ever expanding ring of electricity slowly taking over the roof.  during the faster parts the lazers were all over.  really neat to watch.

Happy birthday was funny to hear Tool sing.  I have no idea who carol is.  but she got the best 16th birthday present in existance.  no questions asked.

Lateralus is a wicked song to begin with.  but live it sounded really well polished and just fantastic.  the gong (its near the end when he says following) deafened everybody for about 10 seconds.  it was SO loud.

Vicarious was a huge hit due to it being the current single.  nuff' said

Aenima.  Talk about a crowd motivator.  everybody turned from the typical tool concert head bobbers into crazy jumping singing maniacs.  and I think that in turn fed energy back to Tool and they played the song beatifully.

well.  I've rambled enough.  time to listen to the concert again.  somebody recorded the entire thing.  so I have the mp3s now.  nice and seamless between songs and everything.  also found some video footage.  good old lax security at the amphitheater.

and it clearly was weak security judging by the sheer numbers of people stoned off their ass.  asking for weed.  asking for papers. asking for joints.
some had stuff to smoke but nothing to smoke it in.  some had stuff to smoke it in, but nothing to smoke, and some just had money.  you can see their dilema

anyways. badass concert.