From: "J.R. Poston" (jrposton@flood.mrg.uswest.com)

My review of the November 5th TOOL show at Mammoth Events Centre in 
Denver:

A bunch of friends and I(8 total) showed up about an hour early because 
we thought there were going to be alot of people in line, there weren't. 
We got in and immediately most of my friends took thier place at the 
front of the stages. My friend Dan and I, who have seen TOOL live before, 
went up to the balcony because we like to watch Maynard. We eventually 
moved down in front of this bar they had in the back center.

The Cows came on and they sucked more than anything. My friends and I 
were hoping to get some moshing done but we were SOL. There was one small 
mosh pit to the left of the stage, but it was too small to attempt. All 
the time we were making fun of the lead singer, who has some strange love 
for his penis. At the beginning he attatched jumper cables to his crotch, 
and that really didn't sit well with my stomach. After 45 minutes or so 
of utter(haha) torture, they left, but not before the lead singer tried 
to amuse us with a head stand. 

During the little break between bands the asshole security guards made us 
move from our excellent seats. We decided to move up to the front of the 
stage on the right because there weren't that many people there. When we 
got down there everyone started to crowd around us, and we thought we 
should move. By this time the crowd was getting really anxious and would 
go crazy every time one of the roadies came on stage. We worked our way 
to the back where there are some tables and a ledge right under the 
balcony and we sat there on the ledge. 

Then the lights went down and this weird noise was coming from the amps. 
Behind the stage were thes monitors for video, and a video of that thing 
from the Ænima cover. After about 10-15 minutes of this(maybe less) the 
band came on. Maynard was painted blue from bald head to toe, and was 
wearing white boxers. They opened up with Third Eye, and that was 
AWESOME! Maynard was doing this little convulsion thing, moving his body 
every direction to the beat of the drum, and he did it all through the 
concert. The second song they played was Stinkfist which was equally 
good. My friends and I yelled chickenweasel, but we didn't here anyone 
else yell it. They played 46 & 2, Prison Sex, and Eulogy. Then they 
played jimmy, and I went fucking crazy. It's my favorite song from the 
new album, and I was loving every minute of it. I didn't get to enjoy all 
of it because this fucker who had too much to drink went crazy and it 
took 4 security guards to control him, and of course this was all taking 
place right under the place I was sitting. The one thing I liked about it 
was the moron got his nose ring ripped out by one of the security guards, 
serves him right. They played Cold & Ugly(my friend went really crazy, 
it's his favorite song), Pushit(fucking awesome), Sober and Opiate. They 
did an encore with Ænema, and that was the end. 

Maynard didn't say much between songs. But when he did say things, they 
were pretty fucking cool. At first, he complimented our basketball teams. 
Before they played jimmy, he said something about a cycle of abuse and 
said that jimmy was a sequel to Prison Sex. He made this very wonderful 
comment about the way people here in Denver look, and here it is:
"So, this is Denver. I was walking around this part of time and there is 
something wrong with people's eyes. Is there something fucked up with the 
water?"
After he said that, I could here people yelling shit like "yeah, we piss 
in it", and such. Before Opiate he made this comment about religion and 
life that I can't remember, but I just loved it when he said it.

Anyway, after the show was over we waited for most of the crowd to clear 
out, and then we went to the front of the stage to see if we could get 
some shit from the stage. At first they through one of Danny's broken 
sticks in the crowd, and we all dove and fought for it and when that was 
over my friend Eric got it. I walked away with one of the set lists that 
was taped on stage. After we got our shit, we went to but t-shirts. I got 
the Ænima shirt and this really cool poster. It's very tall and thin, and 
it has the picture from the back of the shirt with the guy naked 
underwater with someone's legs wrapped around him. After that, we walked 
over to the backstage entrance place, where we hooked up with one of the 
security guards we knew. He told us to sit in the corner for a couple of 
minutes because the band might come out so we could meet them, but some 
other asshole guard made us leave. I was so fucking close to meeting the 
band, which is kind of my life's dream at this point.

Overall review:
I've seen TOOL live 4 times, 3 before this show. I've seen them at Red 
Rocks, the best place to see a concert in the country. This show kicked 
the ass of all the other shows, no question. Go see them if they come 
through your city, even if you have to sell your little brother.

J.R. Poston