Laura, Mike and I went to the Tool concert tonight at the Molson Amphitheatre. It’s an outdoor venue on a rainy night but it was still a pretty good show.
We were at the back on the lawn so we didn’t have anything overtop of our heads but the weather was good for the first half of the night. The opening band was uninspiring so we just relaxed on the lawn, talked and got the red in our eyes.
Tool played for about two hours and the rain began during the first song. It started out pretty slowly, came down hard a number of times but in general, it wasn’t too bad. Just constant. We were somewhat prepared for it so it wasn’t the end of the world or anything, just a bit less than ideal.
As I said, we were back on the lawn so we were by no means close. I could see the stage from where we were. Could see Maynard with his cowboy hat and lack of a shirt but couldn’t really see his face. Laura and Mike were more bothered by this, I think. I don’t claim to know Maynard or Tool as well as they do, but I definitely get the impression the band’s more about their art than their appearance. To this end, they had a constant video stream going on all the LCD screens for us to watch.
The graphics displayed ranged from simple, repetitive images like smoke and basic kalidoscope effects to much more thought-out, messed-up imagery akin to (and sometimes actual) Tool music videos. It was all pretty cool to watch and sometimes even creepy.
But the music itself was great. And it was live. And… well just excellent. And that’s why I was there. It was all quite good and much enjoyed by all three of us.
Oh, and two other people that were there with us - I guess friends of Mike’s. Whatever, I didn’t know them, that’s why they barely registered in this story.
That was my friend Jon from Ottawa and a guy he works with, Rich.
Concert was good…not as good as the last time I saw them, but definitely good.
October 24, 2006 @ 8:59 am