Yeah, but Tool with your dad — funny because it was my son-in-law who took me.  I’ll be blatantly frank and unflowing here by saying I didn’t have your same experience — we were in the luxury suite at the end of the Whoeverthefuckthesponsorisnow Center — sold out concert and we bypass everything into the underground parking garage in a gaudy SUV, hop the elevator and pop out to primo buffets, open bars, and the usual gaggle of South Florida gold-digging T&A that abound at these things — naturally I, whose first concert was observed eons ago by standing on Syracuse Blazer hockey board at the War Memorial for Grand Funk Railroad in ‘71, did not pay even one fraction of one cent for my ticky ticky and all the excess that came with it comp.

Ambient, I concur.  And creditably so.  Blissfully so.  Gears meshing and remeshing in the heavy metal core of me, a core that was engineered in the 60’s and 70’s by Zeppelin and then forged into permanence by molten live exposure to Sabbath, Aerosmith and Deep Purple.  While I could best have been described as FUCKING PUMPED at witnessing the nascence of the laser light show during Blue Oyster Cult’s Chicago stop on the ‘76 tour, seeing its grandchild assault the inside of a sold-out house over 30 years later just made me giggle hysterically — or could it be the buds today really are just that much stronger?  I don’t know I don’t care because it was truly the ambient quality of the show that captured me, and despite being as far from the stage as the set-up allowed, that perspective was perfect for capturing the entirety of that ambience.  Let’s face it — there’s really not that fucking much going on up on that stage at a Tool concert anyway (In fact, their minimalist metal stage stance reminded me very much of Black Sabbath in ‘72 or ‘73) — it’s what issues from that stage that matters — as you pointed out, there was plenty of volume to reach every little crevice in the venue with maximum penetration.  I was violated, saturated, but hardly satiated — it was the best concert I’ve seen since Concrete Blonde with my own son at the Orlando House of Blues 7 years ago, and the best one in a big house since the late 70’s.  I liked your review better — I couldn’t get past ambient — suffused I was and remain….

Anyway, love your blog — you’re simultaneously literate and entertaining as hell — that’s pretty rare…. peace, Jerry