Admittedly, I was never head-over-heels for Maynard James Keenan and the Tool posse. However in the middle of a crowd of a rumored 50,000 plus fans, I found a previously undiscovered appreciation for the band’s incredible musical talent and live presence. With the zoom on my Canon Powershot camera maxed out, I could see that Keenan was on stage wearing tight jeans with glow sticks dangling from the belt loops, a cowboy hat and no shirt. At the distance which we were seeing him from, he appeared to move around in a back-lit silhouette-like form.
Laura and I were situated at a fence surrounding a speaker stack. The security guard who was supposed to be making sure no one hopped the fence to climb on the speakers eventually helped prop me up there for the tail-end of Tool’s set. After Tool was finished, we staggered back to camp, completely worn out from two long, dirty, hot, and amazing days of live music.
The next morning we packed up camp and dragged our equipment back to my station wagon for the long, tired drive home. Laura and I both swore that while the festival was unmatched in magnitude, it would take something bigger for us to make the 16 hour drive to Indio ever again. Something like a photo pass enabling me to take pictures from the front of the stage, or a Rage Against the Machine reunion. Maybe something like Coachella 2007.
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Photo on this page courtesy of Monica Topping