We had a really good time at the TOOL concert. We left the beach at about 2:15 on Thursday and headed to Richmond, which is normally an hour and a half drive, but we hit some really horrible traffic, so it took us a little over two hours to get there. When we got to our hotel, it was nicer than we expected. When we booked it, it was only $109 per night and when we walked in, it was like a mini apartment, with hardwood floors and a den and a hallway that led to a nice bathroom with a bidet (took Todd all of 3 minutes to completely soak the bathroom floor - HA) and a nice bedroom with a king size pillow-top mattress. I immediately called the front desk to confirm our quoted price, so that I was not surprised in the morning with a $300 bill - and it was confirmed, so I was giddy! See how pretty it was.

 

We talked to my brother and figured out a place to meet up and have some cocktails, since it was only like 4:30 and the concert was not until 8:00. So we took off on foot and walked four blocks uphill to the Penny Lane Pub, where we racked up a nice little $100 bar tab and hung out with my brother, his girlfriend Ashley and some of their friends.

 

At about 8:00 we finally walked over to the Richmond Coliseum, where I met up with a friend of mine and where the boys were happy to see that they were serving beer for the event, so Todd quickly located an ATM to pull another $60 for more drinking. The opening band was this Japanese Punk band called “Melt-Banana” - and their sound was off, you could barely make out the vocals, plus it was an interesting choice of an opening act for TOOL. Then it was time for TOOL - and I have to say, the concert was amazing! They sound better live then on their albums. They played an unbelievable set and put on a really awesome laser light show. It was SO worth the trip to Richmond.  It was so neat to see how well those four men play together.

 

After the concert, my brother and his crew went home, and Todd and I walked back to Penny Lane Pub and took our spots at the bar, where I drank more cocktails and Todd polished off a bottle of Vodka and we racked up another almost $100 bar tab. Then we walked our drunk asses back to the hotel and hung out! HA! We got home at about 12:30 on Friday and were both very happy that we went and agreed that it was an amazing concert!

You can see the other pictures from the evening here and here is a clip of what the concert was like:

 

TOOL Live 2007