Most Excellent Time

Tool At The Minneapolis Orpheum Theatre, May 12, 2006 - A Most Excellent Time!

This was a fantastic show. My seats were really close..about 12 rows back and the theatre was small. Probably the first time (out of 7) that I really was able to see Maynard clearly and his expressions throughout the entire show. The entire band sounded really good. Maynard came out in what my friends and I have dubbed as the "Brokeback Maynard" outfit. Spiked mohawk - but wearing a cowboy hat for much of the time, mirrored sunglasses, jeans with a big cowboy-esque belt buckle, cowboy boots and no shirt. They played for about an hour and a half and was a solid selection of great Tool songs. They played a healthy dose of the new album - Jambi, The Pot, Vicarious, for Rosetta Stoned Maynard had this fanny-pack contraption that had a CB-style microphone that he used for the majority of the song. The crew really struggled early to get Maynard's vocals right...first they were too quiet and then would abruptly be really loud. The sound for the show cut out twice, once during Schism and then literally right at the end of the show as Aenema was finishing.

The drummer, Danny Carey, is freakin' unbelieavable. I don't think there is a better drummer playing out there right now. To see him perform live is a treat. Of course Adam Jones is awesome - my friend I think described him best as a 'technician'. Justin Chancellor - the bassist, is also fantastic. There are so many portions of songs that you wouldn't think a bass is playing but when seeing them live, there's Justin cranking it out...it was awesome.

All-in-all was a great time. Rain pretty much all day. Wasn't as bad when the show ended. The line to get in was backed up pretty bad...show started over a half hour late - probably due to that.

I can hardly wait to see them again...but it will probably be a large venue.

Addendum:

The friend I went with and I concluded our trip with the following summary: "It would have been awesome to hear more of the new stuff but now that just means we got to go see them again."