so good to see you...

i had the good pleasure of watching Isis and Tool perform at the Double-A-C a few weeks ago. these days i tend to not get too excited about anything, but as the day wore on and while my buddy Steve and i were making our way to the venue-plex, i did find myself a little bit excited.

Isis took the stage shortly after we found our seats and grabbed a beer. i am passingly familiar with the works of Isis, having been turned on to their intense post-rock stylings a couple years ago. in my mind, if you properly coerced Explosions in the Sky and, maybe say, Tool to, uh, commingle, you might yield offspring similar to Isis. if anyone else, they're like Explosions or Pelican or Mogwai, so if that's your bag, grab it. i didn't recognize any of the tunes from their set, but as it turns out, they played one song from Panopticon (which i do not own) while the rest of the set was from a forthcoming album. at any rate, they rocked it. the cool thing about Isis is that even when they're playing clean, theirs is a powerful sound. i don't much care for scream-vocals in general, but with such emotive compositions, this did not detract from my experience. so yes, very much recommended are Isis.

after hearing word that they had postponed their gig in San Antonio due to Maynard's illness, i was more than a little concerned about the quality of the performance we would be treated to if at all. as it turned out, we were treated quite well. to perhaps overemphasize the point, let me say that any lingering trepidation i might have had regarding the merits of 10,000 Days have been thoroughly absolved now.

i'll get to the setlist and whatnot in a moment. the stage setup demands some time first. if you had been to a Tool show for either of the Lateralus-era tours, you are familiar with the band's stage orientation. this time around, there were significant modifications to this setup. in place of screens flanking the band, there were strings of lights behind the band (similar to what they had during the Aenima tour) and laser light rig reminiscent of Pink Floyd or something. the lasers kicked in (unless my memory is failing me) during Rosetta Stoned and made for some very cool visuals. speaking of visuals! twice during the concert, during Lost Keys and then during the "intermission" before Vicarious, people started raising their lighters. it was quite an effect: a sea of tiny flames everywhere i turned. i was really pretty to see, like being in a huge church or something. heh, i wonder if that happened at the show at SMU back in May.

you may be asking yourself, "but if there aren't any screens, where did they project the standard Tool-ish video clips?" well, that's the neat part, and from what i've heard it is Tool's way to getting back at scalpers and those that buy scalped front-row seats. the fact of the matter is that if you were seated anywhere near the floor, you couldn't properly see the videos because they were being projected onto the all-white stage floor. the chaotic star-maps and Area 51 stuff during Rosetta was pretty cool though, as was the smoke and fire stuff during The Pot. the jumbo-tron was also showing these, but the required angle i'd have had to crane my neck kept my eyes on the stage most of the time.

and that's where most of the action was anyway, aside from the not so inconspicuous stoners and other nutcases. Tool played everything on 10,000 days except Right in Two, along with Stinkfist, 46&2, Aenema, Lateralus, and Schism. that's right: they played Rosetta Stoned *and* Wings for Marie Parts 1 + 2. not only that, but Maynard, as far as my ears are concerned, was spot-on. he ducked out on one line from Aenima, and that's the only glitch i saw in his performance. i don't know what concert the "reviewer" from the Dallas Morning News attended. there were a couple of rough spots during Rosetta and Wings, but i don't think it detracted too much from the overall performance.

overall, the sound was alright, but far from perfect, and this may be due to the venue being more or less a cavernous echo chamber of concrete and steel. it seemed a little muddy to my ears, but i'm no audiophile. strangely enough, Steve noticed (during 46&2) that the louder Tool played, the cleaner their sound became. let me tell you that the drum feature (solo?) during the middle of 46&2 was simply amazing. wow.

a Tool show wouldn't be a Tool show without a little banter from Maynard. as is the case with Mr. Keenan, his interaction with the crowd was sparse (Tool's all about the musics, man). other than mentioning that he was still sick, Maynard didn't have much to say until towards the end of their set at which point he began a running gag about how he had to take a leak. at one point (during the intermission maybe) he said that the show was over because he needed to go to the bathroom and return some videos. so, they played for about another half hour ;-) the best part was during Aenima when he swapped out the lyrics "learn to swim" with "gotta piss" and "insecure actresses" with "insecure urinals". however, my favorite was "i wanna watch it go right in, and then, i'll flush it all away..." brilliant!

that's pretty much all i have to say about that. the show was entertaining, moving and inspiring, and i wouldn't expect anything less from these guys.