“We’re going to take you on a trip,” announces Maynard James Keenan. “Be present, make a connection, put your phones away. At the end, you can get them out to take a picture. If you’re good.”
Some people aren't. Before the end of tonight’s show, at least one person has been ejected from the venue for breaking the above request (as well as the unambiguous PA announcement, signs in the venue, and Tool’s history with this stuff), having fucked around and, presumably to enormous disappointment, found out. What they miss out on is, indeed, a trip, through a set in which the prog-metal quartet take any path but that of least resistance.
So, there no Stinkfist, no Sober, no Schism, no Ticks And Leeches. Even drummer Danny Carey’s epic solo isn’t his brilliant one from Fear Inoculum. But it’s a trip, so you’re not meant to know where you’re going. You’re meant to be surprised. You’re not supposed to know what you’re looking for in it. But when you get it, it's mind-blowing.