Louis CK @ Kings Theatre (November 22, 2025)

I was a bit surprised when I heard about this tour, as Louis had been cancelled for sexual misconduct many years ago. But it didn't deter me from wanting to see the show. Fran didn't know what she was getting into when she agreed to accompany me to the show (she had never heard of him before), and was reminded earlier that day by her brother about Louis' past. All that being said, it turned out to be an absolutely hilarious performance.

This was the first time I had seen Louis live. I wasn't sure whether to expect any sort of change in his style or content post-cancellation, and as far as I could tell there wasn't really any. He didn't address his misconduct in the material, nor do I think he needed to (as an aside, I later found out that he had previously put out a bunch of other material after the cancellation, so this wasn't really a comeback, even though it was his biggest tour since then). While definitely on the raunchier side, he has a rare ability to combine solid material at different philosophical levels. One minute he's joking about farts, another about satisfaction in life, and then later about pedophilia. And all the while leaving us all in stitches.

He had a couple of openers, whose names I can't remember or find at the moment. The first was a woman who wasn't very funny. The second was a Norwegian guy who played the awkward shtick to near perfection - I later found out that his name was Daniel Simonsen.

Radiohead @ Movistar Arena (November 8, 2025)

I was in disbelief when in September Radiohead announced their first tour in 7 years. Even though it was a European tour, I had already booked a vacation to Spain and Portugal with my mom and mother-in-law, so there was a slight chance that I might be able to see one of the shows. I had to do a triple-take when I saw that their last show in Madrid lined up with the day that the tour group would be arriving in Madrid. Even crazier, I later found out that the venue was less than a 5 minute walk from the hotel where we would be staying. Needless to say, I jumped at this opportunity, signed up for the ticket lottery, and got up at 5am to join the virtual queue the morning that the tickets went on sale. With a little payment help from Fran, I was able to score a "fast track" ticket for the show.

The fast track ticket didn't really give any special perks (I knew this going in), though purchasers received "exclusive items" designed by the band (this turned out to be a swag bag, with the most notable items being the bag itself and an umbrella). For me, the most important aspect about the ticket was getting a really good seat close to the floor. I also bought a long sleeve t-shirt from the merch stand, though it turned out to be a little too small.

There was no opening act - the band started promptly at 8:30p as advertised. They played until 10:35, with a single encore (as expected). About ten minutes before the band came onstage they started doing a kind of crowd warm-up where they would play some tones and light up different sections of the arena (at which point that section would scream).

This tour was the first time they played "in the round". The circular stage (including screens and lighting) was cool, and the band (particularly Thom and Ed) made decent use of it by moving around to different sections from time to time. During the early part of the performance the audio didn't sound quite right to my ear, but that improved as the show went on. One regression was that during "Optimistic" (which was played later in the main set) I could barely hear any of the drums.

The setlist spanned their catalog, with representation from every meaningful album (Pablo Honey doesn't count 😅). Standouts included "Reckoner", "Pyramid Song", "You and Whose Army?", and "Let Down". They also ended with my favorite closer, "Everything in Its Right Place".

All in all, the show was a good reminder (not that I needed one) why Radiohead is by far my favorite music artist. I don't know how much longer they'll be around (I didn't really expect them to ever tour or make new music before this tour was announced), but I very much appreciate them while they are.

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Rating: 4.8/5

 

Grizzly Bear @ Brooklyn Steel (October 14, 2025)

This was the first concert I had been to in well over a year. Grizzly Bear isn't among my favorite artists, but I like a fair bit of their stuff. I don't think they have any new recent material, but this was apparently their second live show in six years - the first the day before at the same venue kicked off a brief tour with five shows there in 6 nights (and later dates next month).

Overall it was a solid show, and they played well. The setlist included a couple of my faves by them, but even the songs I was less familiar with sounded good. Not too much else to say besides that. It was good to be back at a live show.

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Rating: 4.1/5

Mike Birbiglia @ Beacon Theatre (June 9, 2024)

This was the first time that we had seen Mike live (unlike the last two times) where it wasn't a residency sort of deal. And he brought this up during the show, commenting that some people prefer the early shows on his tours where the material is more fresh and exciting (though this has the potential downside of not being as refined). The show was billed as "One Night Only" with the title "Please Stop the Ride" - I still don't quite get that title after seeing the show, but whatever.

Since it was a tour show, he had an opening act - two in fact. First was Gary Simons, then Atsuko Okatsuka. They were both pretty decent - definitely better than the opener for Anthony Jeselnik last time out.

Neither, of course, was nearly as funny as Mike. This show was centered around his dad recently having a stroke, and also teaching his now 9-year-old daughter, Una, lessons about the good life while himself not having answers to many of the big questions. As alluded to before, it was a bit more freewheeling than his polished residency performances (with perhaps a couple of reused bits from prior releases), and he also threw in little material for the locals (as he has lived in Brooklyn for many years now). We both really enjoyed the show, and Fran laughed so hard for so long that she was crying a little bit. Mike is still at the top of his game, delivering a mix of storytelling, jokes, and life lessons in his trademark style. I look forward to seeing how the refined product turns out in the special.

Davido @ Madison Square Garden (April 17, 2024)

 

Showtime was billed at 8pm, but Fran and I arrived close to 8:20, not expecting anything to get going any time soon. The DJ started bringing on opening acts maybe 10-15 minutes later, and that lasted for about an hour before they were semi-abruptly pulled off stage. I described that whole scene as "amateur hour". At one point there were 5 or 6 guys standing behind the DJ laptops doing who-knows-what. And most of the acts, bar one, weren't very successful at getting the crowd hyped up.

Anyway, Davido came on a little after 9:30, and wrapped up a bit before 11:30. The crowd was pretty sparse when we arrived, but filled up around the time he started. Throughout his set he brought on a lot of guest performers, sometimes performing with them and other times leaving the stage altogether. A couple of those departures led to reappearances to perform songs within the crowd (once on the floor, once on the first level of seating).

I had the realization during the show that I was only familiar with maybe half of his discography, which is low for me going to see an artist's show (but I did walk out to one of his songs at our marriage reception, so I guess that's sufficient). A lot of the crowd seemed to know the lyrics to every one of his songs, in contrast to me never having even heard half of them. But there were at least a couple of songs he didn't play that I wish he would have (e.g., "Assurance").

Performance-wise... There was a live band for most of Davido's songs; though I think they just played recordings for the guests. The stage setup was modeled after the NYC subway, which made me wonder whether that was specifically for MSG or whether they reused that at other shows. There were also pyrotechnics at various points. And he had dancers that came out (somewhat randomly) for a lot of the songs.

Overall it was a fun show, but tough to give a high rating.

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Rating: 3.8/5

 

Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All @ Beacon Theatre (March 23, 2024)

Anthony Jeselnik is not for everyone. But if you appreciate his style, he's good at what he does. The only person in my NYC circle who appreciates (or at least can put up with) his style is apparently my father-in-law, Tommy.

The opener was some fast-talking lady (I forget her name), who was alright. You can imagine that her act was a bit crass, considering who she was opening up for.

Anthony's act was maybe about an hour and change (Tommy expected longer), and the material was about what you would expect from him - misdirection and one-liners. Some "targets" this time around included trans people, pregnant women, and children. He had me cringing a couple of times, when I wasn't sure if he was still on the line or a little bit over it. But you just have to remember that they are just jokes, and then you can appreciate the humor. He even had a bit where he explains his style as "gallows humor", in the process of setting up another killer joke.

All in all an enjoyable show. I can see this being another Netflix special.

Ramy Youssef: More Feelings @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (December 8, 2023)

For the second straight year, Franny surprised me with tickets to a comedy show for my birthday. And once again the show was straight fire. This time it was to see Ramy Youssef, whose TV show Ramy we had enjoyed together. This show/tour, "More Feelings" was a follow-up to his first comedy special "Feelings" (which neither of us had seen until after we saw this show). Like the TV show, the comedy show centered around his experience as an Arab American and practicing Muslim. The recent war between Israel and Hamas provided further inspiration for the new material. As I mentioned before, the show was great; his jokes were funny, and he has mastered his style of delivery even more since the first special.

A couple of additional noteworthy tidbits... His disabled friend Steve, whom we knew from a recurring appearance on the TV show, was the opening act - a pleasant surprise for us. There was also a point during Steve's act where he was describing the concept of "inspiration porn" from a disabled perspective, and asked for audience members to yell out someone who inspires them. On the second asking Fran shouted "my husband", to which I was immediately embarrassed (kinda like when she tries to start the clap after a plane lands). Thankfully Steve's on-stage reply of "Somebody hasn't been f*cked in a while" helped relieve the awkwardness. 😅

Lastly, this performance was a no-phones show (they locked up audience member phones in little bags that they unlocked afterward), so I didn't get a picture.

Kid Cudi @ Kings Theatre (October 13, 2023)

This show was billed as "Kid Cudi Presents: Cudder’s Clubhouse", an intimate and experimental performance for the fans before he goes on a legitimate tour next year. This was one of a few hastily arranged concerts (the announcement and on-sale were the week before the first show) where Cudi would go deep into his catalog, playing some songs for the first time in a while, or ever.

One particularly novel aspect of the performance is that he set up the stage like a living room of sorts, where he eventually hosted 6 fans from the crowd. He stopped at 3 different points during the performance to select the guests based on their energy and enthusiasm. He treated them to booze and weed that was set out on the table; and of course he also partook in the goodies.

The show was very interactive with the rest of the crowd as well. He paused after just about every song to introduce the next one, or tell an anecdote, or explain how he's finally happy in life, or gush about his special guest Chip tha Ripper, or gush about how great his forthcoming album INSANO will be.

Speaking of the new album, he played 3 new songs from it, and I have to agree that they were all bangers. The setlist from the show should be here, but has not been filled in at the time of publication; but the one from the first clubhouse show seems pretty similar (though longer), so you can get an idea of what he played. Some of the songs were only partially performed, so he went through more than would be played in a typical show. He included a few songs from his WZRD and Kids See Ghosts collaborations. Unfortunately I can't say that I'm a fan of most of his rock material. But the rest of it was pretty good. I suspect that I would have preferred a standard Cudi show with a more crowd-pleasing setlist, but it was still nice to hear some deep cuts (some of which I was not up to speed with); "Balmain Jeans" was a highlight for both me and Fran. I also appreciated his showmanship and smooth dance moves on the stage. Overall a solid show which Fran enjoyed as well.

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Rating: 4.0/5

Explosions in the Sky @ Kings Theatre (October 5, 2023)

I think this was my first proper Explosions in the Sky show; of the couple of times I can remember seeing them before, I think one was a festival set, and the other time I missed a significant portion of their performance. It was a nice and efficient 1.5 hour set with no encore. The light design was interesting (though unspectacular) - the illumination came almost entirely from the floor; and there was a lot of fog. In terms of music, they threw in plenty of classics alongside a couple of new cuts (see the setlist here). While my favorite songs of theirs are typically from the early part of their catalog, "It's Never Going to Stop" from the new album (End, which is actually pretty solid) was an unexpected highlight; it had a unique feel compared to their typical fare, and was interesting to see played live. If I could have made any changes, I would have swapped out "Loved Ones" for "Ten Billion People" (both from the new album). In any case, I'm still quite impressed by how cleanly they play their tunes. Strong work from the boys from Texas.

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Rating: 4.4/5

 

Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool @ Vivian Beaumont Theater (December 10, 2022)

Fran's main birthday gift to me this year was a joint celebration by going to see one of our favorite comedians, Mike Birbiglia (or Mikey B, as we call him), in his new comedy show. The show is currently in the middle of a two month run at the Lincoln Center. His last show "The New One" (which was on Broadway for a few months) centered on his experience becoming a new father. I won't give too much away, but this one continues with themes of family, health, and death. I would highly recommend it if you are a fan of Mikey B's previous work.

I got married yesterday

It was a small civil ceremony on the Mohonk Preserve in upstate New York. We kicked the day off with a helicopter tour of NYC.

There are some pictures from the day here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/raCr15ksSEu6m58A8.

Rage Against the Machine w/ Run the Jewels @ Madison Square Garden (August 14, 2022)

Like many people back in the 1990s and 2000s, I was a fan of Rage Against the Machine. And over the course of my concert-going this was one of the bands that I wished I had gotten a chance to see live. So when their reunion tour got announced for summer of 2020 I jumped at my friend Roger's offer to go with him to see them. Fast forward 2 years, a global pandemic, and two postponements. And then Zack (the frontman) went and (according to a report) tore his Achilles tendon about a month ago - two shows into the tour. The band still powered through this first leg of the tour (ending with 5 sold-out nights at MSG), but have cancelled the European portion later this year so that Zack can heal up. As an aside, I didn't know about the injury until Roger told me in between sets at the show.

Roger got us a couple of general admission tickets on the floor. I figured (especially at Fran's urging) that this would be a good first time wearing ear plugs at a show; it's not quite the same, but I didn't miss much (besides hearing loss). Run the Jewels as the opening act wasn't too spectacular, but wasn't bad at all either. I'm a mild fan of their music, but I still think that most hip-hop performances just don't translate as well live as other genres that involve playing instruments.

When RATM came on, the band members carried their injured singer onto the stage; which was a nice touch. He spent most of the show seated in the middle of the stage, but his limited mobility didn't prevent him from bringing his trademark energy. Similarly, the rest of the band were impressively energetic for being in their 50s. It's amazing to see what Tom can do on the guitar. I also liked the clean and open set design with a big screen and lots of lights.

They played 20 songs over about 1h45m.  Their setlist was loaded with the classics, mostly from their earlier albums; "earlier" being relative, as their last album (which was all covers anyway) was released in 2000. While it was great to see and hear all those iconic songs being performed, I was ready to go by the time the show ended. Maybe my bad back and advancing age can't handle standing for 3+ hours anymore. Or maybe it's also that their music does get a bit repetitive after a while.

In any case, I'm glad that I got to see them live, even without the full spectacle of Zack jumping all over the stage. Perhaps I didn't appreciate it as much as I would have 20 years ago, but it was still pretty good.

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Rating: 4.3/5

Beach House @ Kings Theatre (June 20, 2022)

Beach House have a lot of good songs in their extensive catalog. So many gems that it's still a great show even if they leave out a bunch of my favorites. I had a similar reaction the last time I saw them. And like then, I almost didn't go to the show this time; good thing I snagged a ticket last week.

Unsurprisingly, their setlist was heavy on the new album (Once Twice Melody, which is pretty much a double album), and this wasn't a bad thing. It was good to hear a bunch of the new tunes, most of which were solid. A couple of my favorites from the album were each a book-ending highlight or lowlight: I was excited when they started with "Once Twice Melody", but something about the sound mixing at the beginning (or maybe it's just how the live rendition is?) didn't hit quite the same; and they ended the night with a great performance of "Over and Over" (including a false ending), which is easily the track on the album I've listened to the most. It would have been nice if one of the new songs was "Masquerade", which is probably the most different (and dancy, perhaps) from the others.

The rest of the songs were scattered from their other albums since Teen Dream, which itself only had one song played - good to see them moving on from there, even though it was a fantastic breakthrough album. More standouts included "Dark Spring", "Levitation", and "Lemon Glow", but then again I thought the same last time as well. In general, the live renditions stayed pretty faithful to the album versions, save for Alex's solo on "Space Song" (I think?) - which was one of the rare times that a surprise solo was a pleasant surprise.

Overall a great performance, with little to complain about. Except maybe wishing that Fran was in town to enjoy it by my side.

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Rating: 4.6/5

Sigur Rós @ [Kings Theatre, Beacon Theatre] (June [14, 17], 2022)

The original plan was to go to the Tuesday show, but when we originally made the plan we didn't realize that Fran's school would still be in session this week. We realized this a couple of weeks before the show, so I bought tickets for the Friday show as well, and a work colleague (MaryEileen) was able to take Fran's place for the Tuesday concert.

I'm putting both shows together in one post because they were for the most part the same performance, just in different venues, and with one notable difference that I'll mention shortly. The concert was structured similarly to when I saw them a couple of times a few years ago: broken up into two sections by an intermission, with no opening act. They have played essentially the same setlist at every show on this tour, except for the Tuesday show. On that night Goggi mentioned that it was the 25th anniversary of the release of their first album, so they would do something "a little different" - which was add the song "Syndir Guðs", which they were playing for the first time since 2001. Here are the setlists from Tuesday and Friday. I guess another difference between my experience of the two shows was that on Tuesday we were in the balcony at Kings Theatre, while on Friday we were about 10 rows back on the main floor at Beacon.

Although great, both shows weren't without their, admittedly minor, issues. Tuesday's had a couple of small timing blips: once between the band members on "Heysátan", and once when the lighting tech hit a strobe too early on "Dauðalagið" (though I will say that the effect was really strong when they did get it right - something about the isolation of that drum beat combined with the quick strobe). On Friday Jónsi seemed to have trouble with something (in-ear monitors? complete guess), and left the stage unexpectedly 2 or 3 times (during portions or transitions where he wasn't playing or singing). The timing on "Heysátan" seemed a little better, but I can't blame them for not being completely spot on - that seems really difficult to count out in sync.

As for the highlights... In general the second half was more upbeat (which I preferred) than the first one. That half also included more songs from Takk..., which is easily in my top 10 albums of all time. Though I will mildly complain that the live rendition of "Sæglópur" is a bit too heavy on the drums, thus washing out the rest of the intricate instrumentation. I was pleasantly surprised by "Gold 4" (here's a rendition from another show), which seems to be one of two new songs that they're playing on the tour.

Fran thoroughly enjoyed the show as well, and ranked it above all the other concerts I've dragged her to (above James Blake, Radiohead, and Interpol/Tycho). She thought the songs were beautiful, and seemed to be particularly drawn to the quieter ones (especially when they got into "the huddle" on the left side of the stage for a couple of songs, her favorite being Untitled #3 ("Samskeyti")); and in contrast she complained of a couple of the loudest moments hurting her ears. She appreciated the many instruments that the various band members were able to play. She did comment that she could have done without the visuals on the backing screen for the most part, but did appreciate them during a couple of the songs (one with birds on a wire, and another panning up a rock face).

In any case, here are a couple of pics from Tuesday...

And from Friday...

Rating: 4.5/5

Interpol + Tycho @ Kings Theatre (May 14, 2022)

For some reason I forgot before the show that Tycho has a live drummer and guitars during their performances; so it was a bit of a pleasant surprise that it wasn't just him pushing buttons and playing a keyboard. They also seem to be making good use of the larger space on stage (even as an opener) compared to previous venues that I've seen them. As usual they had the video projection thing going on. Their set was pretty solid, and perhaps more consistently enjoyable than Interpol's.

But Interpol was who most people came to see. The crowd went crazy for the old hits, but were much less subdued for the brand new music - they played about 4 new-to-me songs, a couple of which I later found out have been released as singles and a couple yet unreleased (I didn't even know they had a new album coming out). Daniel played keyboards (instead of his usual guitar) on a couple of the new tracks, which was just as surprising as the fact that those two songs (Toni and Something Changed) were "piano" heavy. Of the new songs, my favorite was easily Into the Night (video from a different show); it was the only one I took to immediately. The other noteworthy thing about their performance was the light show, for a couple of reasons: (1) the band members were backlit for pretty much the entire show, so we couldn't see their faces - I don't remember previous shows being like that; (2) they went waaaaay over the top on the strobe lights - I remarked to Fran at one point that I felt like I was being assaulted by the lights.

Rating: 4.4/5

Tame Impala @ Barclays Center (3/14/2022)

 

A Tame Impala show is a weird mix of stoner rock and semi-danceable bangers; with crazy lights, lasers, and confetti thrown in. I didn't "prep" much for this show, so most of the songs that were top of mind going in were off their/his latest album, The Slow Rush. Though that album was solid, the show reminded me how many good songs were on Currents. The older songs tended to be not as well received by the audience, as their appreciation skewed more toward the newer and more poppy cuts; and the people definitely went crazy for the big hits. Most songs seemed to have the percussion and bass turned up compared the album version. And I was a bit surprised that they played a couple of "interlude" tracks. In contrast to the wild visuals, Kevin & co's showmanship was much less dynamic; and he only left his spot in the middle of the stage a couple of times. An interesting observation (from the big screen, as I was way too far and high up to make out any detail) was that at least a couple of band members appeared to be wearing (pandemic) masks.

Setlist here.

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4.4/5

 

James Blake @ Radio City Music Hall (10/9/2021)

 

This was my first concert since the pandemic started, and I took Fran along with me. It was also my first show using the continuously refreshing ticket barcodes from the Ticketmaster app - seems like a solid strategy to combat ticket scams, but time will tell how effective it is (and there are probably downsides that I'm ignoring, like requiring a smartphone).

Notable points include:

• Personal favorites "Life Round Here", "Mile High", and "Retrograde" were played, though I would have liked a couple more. The "Retrograde" hum part was live looped, and each time it played you could hear the crowd's wild reaction upon recognizing the song at the beginning.
• The live performances helped me dig a couple of tunes off the just released (the day before) new album even more - "Famous Last Words", "Foot Forward", "Life is not the Same".
• There was a bit of a dance party interlude for a couple of songs. Fran really appreciated the opportunity to get up and dance. In general she really liked the show, and enjoyed that many of the songs threw in unexpected aspects.
• James had nice banter with some good humor and showed a lot of appreciation for the crowd.

Setlist here.

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Rating: 4.4/5

Top albums of 2020

As I write this, I realize that the last time I posted to this (or any) blog was the top albums list a year ago. I guess 2020 killed the 2 things that I still blog about these days - concerts and trips. 2020 was also not a great year in music listening for me. While I listened to more music than in 2019 (total # tracks up 101%), my new music discovery rate was much lower (down ~45%, depending on the metric used; and last.fm has some great metrics for this). I think this is because a significant percentage of my listens were from my "Running" playlist, which includes a lot of my favorite songs that I play on shuffle - I tried to take on running (really, short slow jogging) this year since I didn't have soccer leagues to keep me active.

 

As I did for 2018, I'm not going to rank the albums this year. This will just be a list of notable albums I enjoyed that were released this year.

Torres - Silver Tongue

String Orchestra of Brooklyn - afterimage

Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

Grimes - Miss Anthropocene

Moses Sumney - græ

Phantogram - Ceremony

Kangstof - The Noise You Make is Silent

The-Dream - SXTP4

dvsn - A Muse In Her Feelings

Other Lives - For Their Love

NNAMDÏ - BRAT

I Break Horses - Warnings

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension

Fleet Foxes - Shore

Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon III: The Chosen

Top albums of 2019 (plus top albums of 2010s)

I continue to listen to less and less music...  But that doesn't mean that I can't still put together a year-end top albums list.  Unlike last year, when I threw my arms up and made no attempt to order the list, I'll at least try to rank the albums this year (despite not giving them an adequate amount of listens).  When I first began compiling these lists (and up until a couple of years ago), I used spreadsheets to tally up points to create the rankings; ain't nobody got time for that these days.  But here's a rough cut (with links to some of my favorite songs from some of the albums)...

1. Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
2. James Blake - Assume Form
3. Buke & Gase - Scholars
4. Davido - A Good Time
5. Joseph - Good Luck, Kid
6. The New Pornographers - In the Morse Code of Brake Lights
7. Foals - Everything Not saved Will Be Lost Part 1
8. Tool - Fear Inoculum
9. Lower Dens - The Competition
10. elbow - Giants of All Sizes
11. Somos - Prison on a Hill
12. Tycho - Weather
13. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
14. Sudan Archives - Athena
15. Tender - Fear of Falling Asleep
16. Clams Casino - Moon Trip Radio
17. Thom Yorke - Anima
18. Foals - Everything Not saved Will Be Lost Part 2
19. Lillie Mae - Other Girls
20. Burna Boy - African Giant

As a bonus, here's a list compiled because my good friend Tom asked what my top albums of the decade are.  I combed through the lists from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, and came up with this...

1. Foals - Total Life Forever
2. Beach House - Depression Cherry
3. James Blake - Overgrown
4. Other Lives - Rituals
5. Moderat - III
6. Bear in Heaven - I Love You, It's Cool
7. Panda Bear - Tomboy
8. The Range - Potential
9. Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love
10. Sigur Rós - Kveikur
11. Alt-J - This is All Yours
12. Hundred Waters - The Moon Rang Like a Bell
13. Jónsi - Go
14. Crystal Castles - (III)
15. Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

Tool @ Barclays Center (11/19/2019)

I almost didn't include the picture above, because Tool has a "strict" no-camera policy at their shows (though sneaking a couple of pictures in would have been easy).  But then Maynard "allowed" cameras for the last song, which was dedicated to the artist who does their artwork (a special guest that night).  This at least gives an idea of the general stage setup, but doesn't include the lasers, LEDs, or transparent curtain that they had in front of them for most of the show.

Good stuff about the show:

• I intentionally skipped the opener (Killing Joke) and got to my seat right as Tool was taking the stage; perfect timing.
• It's a Tool concert, so of course there's going to be good music played well.  They mixed in a good amount of old and new.  Setlist here.
• They played my favorite song from the new album, "Pneuma".
• The stage setup, lighting, and effects were cool.
• They had a 12 minute (laser projected) countdown clock between the main set and the encore.  They don't do the "let's keep them clapping for an unknown while" thing.
• I met up with high school friends Eric and Cam in front of the venue after the show.  We had previously discussed attending the show together, but they initially didn't think they could make it - so I bought a solo ticket.  Obviously, they ended up going at the last minute.

Bad stuff:

• My left shoulder was still recovering from surgery 3.5 weeks prior, and was slightly uncomfortable for brief portions of the concert.
• The view from my seat was not the greatest.  As you can see from the photo, the left speakers block a good portion of the view, in particular one of the platforms where Maynard hung out in the back.
• People who stand up in front of you in the nosebleed seats.
• When I stood up to see over the people standing in front of me, I kept my coat on my seat.  It ended up falling to the floor and somehow getting some liquid (I'm guessing beer?) all over it.
• I don't have too many complaints about the actual content of the show, despite not thinking the latest album was as good as the previous three.  However, Danny's "Chocolate Chip Trip" percussion wankery was garbage and a complete waste of 10 minutes.

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Rating: 4.4/5