Tool. Many bands talked of their excitement to see Tool before last Saturday's night show at the Mile High Music Festival outside of Denver, Colorado. Many bands expressed the thrill they felt afterwards on Sunday. It's just one of those bands.
I arrived early on Saturday morning. You could tell by those waiting in line who they were most excited to see. When the gates opened, this dedicated crowd swarmed to the Main Stage (west) to snag the best possible spot in the front of the railing.
And that's where they stayed for the entire day until Tool started just past their set time of 8:45 p.m.
A fan that my group of friends met and camped with over the weekend came all the way from Maui to see them, and flew out this morning to catch them again in Phoenix. They're that special.
But there are sometimes snags. I had been most looking forward to shooting Tool and Incubus, but I found out Saturday morning that only a select few photographers were going to be allowed in the pit to shoot Tool, and for one song only. Just another quirk of theirs. Our group wasn't among those lucky few. I'd been told by the powers that be, however, that they wouldn't stop me if I shot from behind the rail. So after Incubus wrapped up, I squirmed to the rail. And there I waited for about two hours.
At first, my little area of people experienced that animosity you get when you've fought for your right to stand up front, but so did everyone else so they're touchy and stand their ground.
But out of no where, a girl appeared to change that. She had seen Tool four times. Behind her, another person who had seen them eight times. She explained to us Tool newbies: "If I could describe their show in one word, it would be: Hypnotizing."
After the very long wait, we warmed up and everyone around me found out I'm a photographer. Suddenly I was pushed to the front and told to shoot even if the lens was in their way for just a moment. It was the same sort of reception I got at the NIN/JA/SSSC show in May.
At one time, a security guard walked by and jumped in to question my camera. To my great surprise, I was defended by the people around me. The guard's supervisor came over and assured me that it was ok, so long as I only shoot the first song.
So Tool begins. I shoot. A quarter through the first song, a very, very angry woman in the pit appeared and scolded me ('scolded' is probably too light a word). "Put it away, put it away!" she screamed. I could only gesture to her that there was no possible way my camera was going to fit between the railing and the throng of people shoving me against it. She snapped at a guard to watch me. I'm pretty sure I saw some eye-rolling from him when she walked away.
I'd like to say the experience didn't ruin my enjoyment of the show. But getting scolded by someone I didn't know (what was her job?) after being told by a very large number of people that what I was doing was ok, yea...sort of not fun.
But I did get these two photos.
