straponheart posted the following on Tool’s Reddit:
When the music clinics were announced many of you criticized them as a greedy cash grab. I recognized it was comically expensive but trusted they we’re better than that and that if they were charging $500 without Maynard they would at least give us a great experience and not phone it in. I was totally wrong.
For anyone on the fence about going to the remaining ones, here’s an overview of the night
The entire thing was 2 hours and wrapped up by 10 PM
I wasnt expecting a full concert, but this barely constituted a performance. By my count they played 5 (shorter) songs which peaked with Jambi and a shortened Descending. We also got a 2 min abstract modular synth jam. There weren’t any real “favorites” played and no material we hadn’t heard before.
We got to see a music video for Opiate which they didn’t play along to and was cut off in the middle. Adam said this was to “make more money off of us” which would have been a funny self-deprecation if it didn’t seem true.
Not the band’s fault, but the questions were mostly awful and cringeworthy. From maybe 12 questions we got not one, but TWO about if they thought VR was cool, a rambling story about Mandala pads being out of stock, a dude asking why the Toms on one specific drum fill pans right to left instead left to right, a nonsensical question about why Danny played a ‘creepy’ solo at the same time someone in the audience fell down (?) at a show in New Orleans years ago, a guy asking Adam what it’s like to do all the artwork for the band (he doesn’t), a plea for them to tour SE Asia, someone asking if they liked the movie Annihilation, whether or not they would tour Asia and the obligatory “what psychedelics do you use” question. A lot of the others they didn’t really directly answer and we got rehashed answers. There were a few cool insights about the songwriting process but most of these we’d already heard ad verbatim.
Plenty of fans were on their worst behavior and shouting the entire time. Alex mentioned how much he respected Paul for walking away to which numerous people responded by screaming “fuck Paul”.
The “meet and greet” for me consisted of a blurry picture with just Justin and Danny since Adam left like 15 min in.
The security made us sign waivers, locked our phones up, and wouldn’t let us bring anything to sign. I had a backpack since I flew in and they refused to let me in with it so I had to pay a bartender across the street to hold it. This wasn’t unexpected but not very “intimate”.
The special merch was supposed to be at the show but they said there were logistical issues so they would be shipping it to us. With an extra shipping fee.
I wish I hadn’t gone because it made it harder to love this band. Only the most hardcore fans with money to burn should attend and only if you get off on “we love you guys, you’re the 5th member of the band” type platitudes (the spinal tap Simpsons comes to mind) or just want to bask in their presence that bad. For $500 and no Maynard this should either have been longer or more intimate (it was still hundreds of people). It wasn’t absymal but it’s almost insulting they charged that much for it.
I flew from another city for this shit. I had to miss another obligation because they refused to refund or transfer my ticket. I feel pretty bad for the dude who flew from Bangladesh…
