From: David Shick (Dmshick1@isaac.net)

Place: Grady Cole Center, Charlotte, NC
date: 12/6/96
opening: Psychotica (however it's spelled) I am biased against 
psychotica, i hate them and their vinyl outfits, so I won't waste my time 
saying anything about them... Tool was great, they sounded wonderful, i 
was amazed at how well they recreated the sound of the album...they 
started off with Third Eye, after what seemed like 2 hours of techno BS 
and some build-you-up organ type music that never ended...finally maynard 
came out, shirtless with jogging pants on, never having seen tool before 
i was amazed he was so short, and promptly started...He had some black 
and white blacklight (i forget the technical name) body paint on...Half 
his body was black the other half white with a perfect line down the 
center of his body...all in all it looked interesting, and alien like...i 
was first down in the front of the "pit" but it was annoying with all the 
stupid rednecks and the asshole bouncers who had a problem with just 
about everything, (they wouldn't even let me in wearing a studded 
belt)...so i left there and went to find some seats on the sides...the 
setup was horrible, your view was obstructed from almost every angle, so 
the best i could find was a place where i could see everything except the 
guitarist...anyway, they played most of the songs with lyrics from AEnima 
with the exception of Hooker w/ a penis, and a few songs from older 
albums, like Sober, and Opiate...the ten minute intro on sober kinda lost 
me, but their performance of the song made up for it...maynards stage 
"antics" mainly consisted of him tryin to do some kind of yoga shit on 
stage, and in one song he bent himself back so that it looked like the 
scene out of that movie "fire in the sky" when that guy was lifted into 
the ufo... in a brief intermission between songs maynard talked about 
(their bassist?) saying he recently learned he had only one testicle and 
asking people in the audience if they had three and could loan him 
one...he also talked about a few other things, such as one of their road 
crews record on frisbee throwing...they played what wass supposed the be 
their last song, I believe it was opiate, and then, obviously expecting 
the audience to ask for another since they all stayed on stage, they 
played aenema...
it was a good, although uneventful, show and i would certainly go see 
them again, as long as it wasn't at the grady cole center, people should 
not try to turn gymnasiums into concert halls... michael shick