A concert, a long wait, and a lot of stoned people.

Tool. F*cking. Rocked.

We left town somewhere around noon on Monday. The drive down to Wilkes-Barre, PA was about three hours.. and then we had to wait in the parking lot for another four. I was so excited, the wait was unbearable.. but we made it through. The guys kept it interesting.

I was a bit paranoid though because I noticed a lot of people kept watching me. But whatever.

When they finally opened the gates, the security people lined up to search the crowd for drugs, weapons, etc. I was cool with it.. until they put on latex gloves. Right then, I got nervous. (I hate when people I don't know try to feel me up and then it starts to look like they're going to perform a cavity search.. what the hell?) But it all turned out all right. I just got a quick patdown from a scary lady twice my size and was ushered through the door.

After a lecture about drugs, moshing, and crowd surfing from a senior citizen with a megaphone, the guys and I went to the bathroom, got some beverages, and found our seats.

I wasn't all too thrilled with the opener, Isis. I liked the overall style of the music (kind of a cross between Opeth, Tool, and The Gathering), but it needed to be cleaned up a bit. It was far too muddy and the guys needed to work on their stage presence. But I also took into consideration that Isis is still an up-and-coming band and probably hasn't done a show like this before. Give it maybe another year and they'll be at the top of their game.

Then the magic happened.. Tool took the stage and twenty bajillion things happened at once. Wailing guitars, drums and bass felt in your chest, psychadelic swirls projected onto the white stage, a high Maynard.. it was great. And then they busted out the laser lights. The musicianship and production completely blew my mind.

After the show, we hung out in the parking lot for at least half an hour, waiting for the rush to leave, and found our way to the nearest truck stop restaurant. We were a rowdy bunch, but we left the waitress a good tip.

And then my MOTHER calls me at 2:15 a.m. to check on me. (I hope I didn't make a fool of myself while talking to her.. I don't remember the conversation at all.)

And then we all finally made it home somewhere between 4 and 4:30 a.m. I can only imagine what time it would've been if we decided to go to the afterparty. I'm glad we didn't.. we were exhausted.

* * * * *

I filled out a long form and took a literacy test up at Sanmina this morning. Hopefully I'll get a job.. I don't see a reason for them not to hire me. If they don't give me a call by Friday, I'm going to "get all up in their Koolaid" and see what's going on. I need money, damn it!

And while I still have some spare time, I've decided to learn some stuff by Dream Theater. I've been playing keyboards for a year now, so I figured it's time to challenge myself. I'm getting a little bored with the Evanescence, Black Sabbath, Nightwish, etc. and it would be cool to learn my favorite song of all time, "Endless Sacrifice". We'll see how it goes.