It doesn't seem like there are a lot of Tool fans in LA. My optimism was restored this morning when, at my local dispensary, the dude checking ID's complimented me on my hoodie, and upon entry, I got to talking with a chick on staff who's a fan like my husband and I are. She told me she drove to Arizona in 2015 for a Halloween show.
Love finding kindred spirits!
Isn’t it great to say, “at my local dispensary.” I live in California but in the Central Valley so I can’t say that yet.
Soon for you, I hope!
Yeah, as much as I love PJ (and my first show of theirs will always be unforgettable for a myriad of reasons), Tool is a different beast altogether. A beast in which I enjoy getting lost - and found, if that makes sense.
Go, LouJoe!
Listening to swamp song now, itd be incredible if we get that tonight but it really doesnt matter what they play as long as it's from one of their studio albums. Cant think of another band I've ever thought same.
2nd and last show this year tonight, 9th overall. Hoping for more next year!
Well, you get 2 older songs that loop in and replace something else and so far 2 newer songs that get replaced by newer.
I'm wondering where the back catalog of gems are at and why they don't bust them out?
they were on exactly at 8:45 and the last note was played at 11:00. no bullshit banter, all business....
have to assume its as much about timing as it is about what he feels he can still pull off without damaging his voice..
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
After a few weeks of not listening to the new album I’ve gone back to it and am really digging it even more now. I have a new found affection for the title track!
I just realised it's been over a month since I listened to the album.
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
I just realised it's been over a month since I listened to the album.
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
We should leave the 2 Fs, fenway and festivals off the list. I'm just too old to stand still 7 hours.
PJ has padded their stats with their unusual desire to play that one terrible venue in the north east 4 times (unless you like obstructed views) and tool has done one festival and one arena show in boston in 7 years.
I just realised it's been over a month since I listened to the album.
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
We should leave the 2 Fs, fenway and festivals off the list. I'm just too old to stand still 7 hours.
PJ has padded their stats with their unusual desire to play that one terrible venue in the north east 4 times (unless you like obstructed views) and tool has done one festival and one arena show in boston in 7 years.
Your original claim was that Tool & PJ have ‘Northeast Avoidance’ which is simply nonsense. You can pretend the Fenway & festival shows don’t count, but in reality, Tool has played in New England 4 times in the last 2-1/2 years and PJ has played here 4 times in the last 40 months... To take it a step further, since May of 2010, PJ has played New England 9 times... an average of once per year (that’s not even counting all the shows in NY or Philly). By comparison, they’ve played 3 total shows in Seattle in ten f’ing years. Their hometown... an average of 1 show every 40 months... & they’ve played all of 2 west coast shows since 2013... that’s absurd. Yes, Tool has ‘only’ played New England 7 times in the last ten years, but they haven’t toured much of anywhere consistently over the last 12 years. They’ve swung through here about as much as they’ve swung through any region when all is said & done. We’re spoiled AF here in the northeast whether you realize it or not.
I just realised it's been over a month since I listened to the album.
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
We should leave the 2 Fs, fenway and festivals off the list. I'm just too old to stand still 7 hours.
PJ has padded their stats with their unusual desire to play that one terrible venue in the north east 4 times (unless you like obstructed views) and tool has done one festival and one arena show in boston in 7 years.
Your original claim was that Tool & PJ have ‘Northeast Avoidance’ which is simply nonsense. You can pretend the Fenway & festival shows don’t count, but in reality, Tool has played in New England 4 times in the last 2-1/2 years and PJ has played here 4 times in the last 40 months... To take it a step further, since May of 2010, PJ has played New England 9 times... an average of once per year (that’s not even counting all the shows in NY or Philly). By comparison, they’ve played 3 total shows in Seattle in ten f’ing years. Their hometown... an average of 1 show every 40 months... & they’ve played all of 2 west coast shows since 2013... that’s absurd. Yes, Tool has ‘only’ played New England 7 times in the last ten years, but they haven’t toured much of anywhere consistently over the last 12 years. They’ve swung through here about as much as they’ve swung through any region when all is said & done. We’re spoiled AF here in the northeast whether you realize it or not.
TOOL played Govs ball 2 years ago which is NE. It's in Manhattan but still close enough to Boston to commute in to see them.
TOOL played Govs ball 2 years ago which is NE. It's in Manhattan but still close enough to Boston to commute in to see them.
Yup, and they also played Brooklyn, Philly A.C. & Newark this fall as well.
I used New England as a baseline, but if you expand both bands’ appearances to include NYC, NJ & Philly, I think you would find they play the Northeast as much, if not more, than pretty much anywhere.
At least Pearl Jam does... I don’t think they play ANYWHERE as much as they do the Northeast - Tool has just been inconsistent in the 13 years since they released the last album, if you think they play here any less than anywhere else, I don’t think you’re looking at how little they’ve toured over the last 15 years.
TOOL played Govs ball 2 years ago which is NE. It's in Manhattan but still close enough to Boston to commute in to see them.
Yup, and they also played Brooklyn, Philly A.C. & Newark this fall as well.
I used New England as a baseline, but if you expand both bands’ appearances to include NYC, NJ & Philly, I think you would find they play the Northeast as much, if not more, than pretty much anywhere.
At least Pearl Jam does... I don’t think they play ANYWHERE as much as they do the Northeast - Tool has just been inconsistent in the 13 years since they released the last album, if you think they play here any less than anywhere else, I don’t think you’re looking at how little they’ve toured over the last 15 years.
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
Taking a quick look at Setlist.fm, it looks like you're probably right; I shouldn't have suggested Tool plays the Northeast as much (or more) than anywhere else, but I think my overall point, that we're hardly neglected here, still stands.
There are a couple of 21 month gaps in Tool's touring schedule over the last 8 years with almost no US dates: one where they played only AU / NZ / Japan in '13, (no US dates between June of '12 & March of '14) and one between April of '14 & January of '16 they played one show TOTAL (Monster Mash in AZ). That's 42 months out of the 64 where they didn't return to the Northeast in which they played all of one show in North America. That's almost 4 years, where they played only one US show.
Point being, I would say their lack of shows in the Northeast over the last 8 years is more a reflection of their lack of touring in general and little / nothing to do with avoiding the area. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my $0.02.
(apropos of nothing... in looking at Setlist.fm, I saw they played 2 shows at Red Rocks in 2010... God damn I wish I had caught the travel bug by then... I would have killed to see one of those shows)
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
(apropos of nothing... in looking at Setlist.fm, I saw they played 2 shows at Red Rocks in 2010... God damn I wish I had caught the travel bug by then... I would have killed to see one of those shows)
I was at both of those Red Rocks shows...incredible! Got a pick from Justin and a setlist from Danny. Awesome 2 nights.
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7-11-1995; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-29-1998; MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV 10-22-2000 ~PJ10~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 4-1-2003; Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ 6-7-2003; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-18-2003; Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI 6-21-2003; Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 10-5-2004; The Gorge, George, WA 9-1-2005; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-16-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-17-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-2-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-3-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-23-2009; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-24-2009; Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC 12-4-2013; Key Arena, Seattle, WA 12-6-2013; iWireless Arena, Moline, IL 10-17-2014 ~No Code Show~; Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN 10-19-2014; Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI 10-20-2014 ~Yield Show~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 10-22-2014 ~PJ24~: Wrigley Field 1 & 2, 2016; Safeco Field, Seattle Home Shows 1 & 2; Wrigley Field, Chicago Away Shows 1 & 2....
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
Before the two nights they played at Staples Center in October, Tool last played in Los Angeles back in 2010.
As a band, Tool is originally from Los Angeles.
During the nine years of touring in between, they played SF and SD multiple times, skipping over LA each time. I know they played San Bernardino in 2017 (different county), but there was a 9-year gap between hometown shows.
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
(apropos of nothing... in looking at Setlist.fm, I saw they played 2 shows at Red Rocks in 2010... God damn I wish I had caught the travel bug by then... I would have killed to see one of those shows)
I was at both of those Red Rocks shows...incredible! Got a pick from Justin and a setlist from Danny. Awesome 2 nights.
That must have been amazing. I saw APC there last year, great band at a bucket list venue... I’m happy to have seen Maynard there, those acoustics live up to the hype, but Tool is the gold standard, obvi.
I just realised it's been over a month since I listened to the album.
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
We should leave the 2 Fs, fenway and festivals off the list. I'm just too old to stand still 7 hours.
PJ has padded their stats with their unusual desire to play that one terrible venue in the north east 4 times (unless you like obstructed views) and tool has done one festival and one arena show in boston in 7 years.
Your original claim was that Tool & PJ have ‘Northeast Avoidance’ which is simply nonsense. You can pretend the Fenway & festival shows don’t count, but in reality, Tool has played in New England 4 times in the last 2-1/2 years and PJ has played here 4 times in the last 40 months... To take it a step further, since May of 2010, PJ has played New England 9 times... an average of once per year (that’s not even counting all the shows in NY or Philly). By comparison, they’ve played 3 total shows in Seattle in ten f’ing years. Their hometown... an average of 1 show every 40 months... & they’ve played all of 2 west coast shows since 2013... that’s absurd. Yes, Tool has ‘only’ played New England 7 times in the last ten years, but they haven’t toured much of anywhere consistently over the last 12 years. They’ve swung through here about as much as they’ve swung through any region when all is said & done. We’re spoiled AF here in the northeast whether you realize it or not.
Festivals are a shortened preview of a bands show that are experienced with thousands of non fans. Not a true concert experience. More like hearing them casually on the radio. It's perfect for fans that want to see a variety of bands and get sick partying doing it. It's a separate classification and a far inferior experience imo.
Boston is out of the way from most of the NE corridor and PJs obsession with only playing fenway over a 4 year period on the entire eastern half of the country is unusual. If they are barely going to tour they make it worse by focusing on the same ancient venue tucked away in the corner of the country. The largest city and most populated region in the country by far has seen 2 full PJ shows in 7 years. I'd hardly call that spoiled.
Tool has played a grand total of ONE arena show in NYC in 13 years, but avoided the major Eastern markets by touring mostly smaller US markets last spring, again this Jan and the majority of their mini tours 2014 to 2017. They play Jersey more than NYC. They just scheduled so many SoCal shows they had to cancel one.
Doesn't tool tour the west way more? It's closer to their homebase and Maynard's winery.
Before the two nights they played at Staples Center in October, Tool last played in Los Angeles back in 2010.
As a band, Tool is originally from Los Angeles.
During the nine years of touring in between, they played SF and SD multiple times, skipping over LA each time. I know they played San Bernardino in 2017 (different county), but there was a 9-year gap between hometown shows.
I don't think they care much for LA...
I do remember years ago they liked playing in Bakersfield where Korn was from.
The band loves Fresno and Fresno loves them. But a Fresno is a shit hole so there is always that. Just glad they love it here cause I’ll be at a show on Jan 15.
Anyone heard of Tool Drive Project? Pretty good site with fan recorded Tool shows. Including some from recent shows. I used to be a taper and I can say I give these guys props for sneaking in the equipment and standing there for 2 hrs while trying to get a good pull for us to listen to later. Bands open to taping are cake. Bands that dont allow it, it's like being a magician sneaking in the equipment.
Soldier Field, Chicago, IL 7-11-1995; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-29-1998; MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV 10-22-2000 ~PJ10~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 4-1-2003; Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ 6-7-2003; United Center, Chicago, IL 6-18-2003; Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI 6-21-2003; Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 10-5-2004; The Gorge, George, WA 9-1-2005; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-16-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 5-17-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-2-2006; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 7-3-2006; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-23-2009; United Center, Chicago, IL 8-24-2009; Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC 12-4-2013; Key Arena, Seattle, WA 12-6-2013; iWireless Arena, Moline, IL 10-17-2014 ~No Code Show~; Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN 10-19-2014; Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI 10-20-2014 ~Yield Show~; Pepsi Center, Denver, CO 10-22-2014 ~PJ24~: Wrigley Field 1 & 2, 2016; Safeco Field, Seattle Home Shows 1 & 2; Wrigley Field, Chicago Away Shows 1 & 2....
The band loves Fresno and Fresno loves them. But a Fresno is a shit hole so there is always that. Just glad they love it here cause I’ll be at a show on Jan 15.
My family knows my disdain for Fresno... It is a shithole...
The band loves Fresno and Fresno loves them. But a Fresno is a shit hole so there is always that. Just glad they love it here cause I’ll be at a show on Jan 15.
My family knows my disdain for Fresno... It is a shithole...
Your speaking nothing but facts. Shithole almost seems too kind of words for this place.
The band loves Fresno and Fresno loves them. But a Fresno is a shit hole so there is always that. Just glad they love it here cause I’ll be at a show on Jan 15.
My family knows my disdain for Fresno... It is a shithole...
Your speaking nothing but facts. Shithole almost seems too kind of words for this place.
Funny story.
Driving up Cali, headed towards Sequoia we needed a place to stop for the night, no locked plans, just drove to where we were headed, and made a decision to stay at the Casino in Fresno. Why? I didn't know Fresno had a casino. I'm not to fond of Fresno but a newer place should be ok, I thought...
I wanted a beer for the room so we went a few blocks away and looking for a Circle K or something and the areas got shittier and shittier. My GF who has traveled the world looks at me and says, we should turn around.
I say "relax" We stop at a Circle K and I get out, the group of guys by the walls next door perk up and look over towards the car that is out of place, the guy that got out and the way he is dressed is out of place. One circles the car on his bike. Now I knew this would happen and I'm not a small person so I don't give it much worry.
I buy my beer, watching out the corner of my eye and the clearly visible video cameras of outside, just in case.
I come out and there is a 5'4" Hispanic man in his late 40's who looks like he has been on a meth binge for the last month that was circling my car, asks me for some change.
I tell him Credit only my man. He looks at me up and down and before riding away he says, "your little brother wants his shorts back"
I crack up and get in the car and my GF asks what he said and can we get the hell out of here!?!
So we get to the casino, which is not new... Check in. We aren't too thrilled about the location, the parking garage or the walk it took to get to the lobby...
As we walk down the corridor of the casino hotel I smell a familiar smell but can't place it. I ask my GF what that is and she replies "broken dreams"
We chuckle.
We get to the door of the room with every intention of walking in and walking out for the disaster we are about to witness.
We open the door and it smells pleasant. It's clean. Spacious. The room is beautiful.
Didn't see THAT coming.
Very pleasant stay in that room but the rest of the place is an absolute cesspool...
Fresno has nothing going for it. Everyone says, well your close to the beach and the mountains. If the escapes are what make it good then your fucked. Plus the beach is 3 boring ass hours away. And the closest mountains are 1-1.5 hours away. It’s ungodly hot in the summer. The air quality is the worst in the nation. Poverty, drug and alcohol addiction is through the roof. The homeless and panhandlers have taken over the town like it’s the walking dead. The police force is a joke. It’s a good ol boy area from the top down. 95% of the city is not somewhere you wanna be at night. 65% of the city is not somewhere you wanna be anytime of the day. You can barely go to any business without being harassed by panhandlers. You handled it better than I do. When they ask for change I tell them to fuck off and get a job. Job applications are free, go get one of those. It’s a hardcore republican town but in the worst way. It’s a bunch of uneducated rednecks that say, that’s how my daddy voted so that’s how I vote. Yet they do nothing about the problems in the town as long as it doesn’t leak into their gated areas. Gangs are everywhere. The ex police chief who is running for mayor is a statutory rapist who did nothing to fix the problems of Fresno but put more motorcycle cops to issue more speeding tickets. Everyone runs red lights making it unsafe to go when the light changes. Everyone jay walks and doesn’t use crosswalks. I’m sure there are worse places in America but Fresno makes me wanna kill myself daily. Just waiting for my daughter to figure out what she is doing after she graduates high school and the millisecond she is in her own my wife and I are leaving California. Plus the venue that Tool is playing has the worst seats. You have to sit at an angle if you have any shoulder width and no leg room. Plus the sound is shit.
At least the room you stayed in was nice. And your girlfriend’s comment was priceless.
Believe what you want to believe, but the suggestion that Pearl Jam or Tool avoid the northeast is laughable.
.
Don’t know why that was conDescending, pun intended, but I lived thru a large Tool drought while they toured a ton of B markets and skipped the NE altogether 2013-2017.
lets just focus on Tool, PJ would be too easy to prove. PJ plays northeast some but avoids NY in favor of Boston, although NYC metro is about five times larger.
Tool- I remember not wanting to drive the hour to NJ in 2012 (first area show in three years) and the next show within a five hour drive of here was not until 2017. So that year I drove to Hershey and fairfax as gov ball was too disgustipated for this old dude to stand six hours. I don’t get the festival logic of these 55 yo bands but whatever. I did almost go to the ball. It was an 11 year drought back then for me. Shame.
taking a quick look at Tool setlist.fm to challenge whether my memory is correct (MJK shows only)-
Since fall 2009, in the last 10 years, Tool has played a grand total of 15 shows in the Northeast. I’m leaving out cities that are more than 600 miles round trip from ny.
Before this fall, that total was 9 shows. Wikipedia says Northeast has about 20% of the country’s population ( not including DC metro population). 15 shows does not sound like 20% as Tool has toured a decent amount. I’d like to include DC shows and not the Pittsburgh region as DC is more accessible by ground transport
Over this time, they played as many shows down under which has half the population as here. Check out all the San Diego shows, Texas , Fresno, New Orleans and on and on during this time. Check out all of their standard 20 show runs over the last decade between albums where they toured and maybe they hit VA as the closest to the NEast. I think there was a run of years VA saw more shows than the northeast.
It’s not the easiest of calculations, DC should be included because it’s far more drivable than Pittsburgh or buffalo but the census stats don’t include DC in the NE population total. I’m sure a response will include the western cities like Pitt but are not very drivable from nyc.DC is very drivable but Hampton VA not so much.
i think they have played Rochester buffalo and Pittsburgh more than nyc.
Comments
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I called the post office today and they have no clue where it is.
yes!!! received it yesterday.. better knock down some doors!
Melbourne #2 '03
Melbourne #3 '03
Melbourne #1 '06
Melbourne #3 '06
Melbourne '09
Melbourne '14
Its challenging for me to transition from listening to Tool back to other music (except for PJ)!
I wish they come back to NE in 2020 but not thinking it's likely. They have a touch of that PJ affliction, Northeast Avoidance.
Both bands combined have played New England 8 times since August of ‘16, as compared to say, Florida where the two bands combined have played only 9 shows in 11 years. (Not to mention Pearl Jam hasn’t played anywhere on the west coast since 2013 with the exception of the Seattle home shows & Tool appears to have played only 3 total shows Washington & Oregon combined since 2010)
Compared to other parts of the country, we have it pretty good up here in New England.
We should leave the 2 Fs, fenway and festivals off the list. I'm just too old to stand still 7 hours.
PJ has padded their stats with their unusual desire to play that one terrible venue in the north east 4 times (unless you like obstructed views) and tool has done one festival and one arena show in boston in 7 years.
Yes, Tool has ‘only’ played New England 7 times in the last ten years, but they haven’t toured much of anywhere consistently over the last 12 years. They’ve swung through here about as much as they’ve swung through any region when all is said & done.
We’re spoiled AF here in the northeast whether you realize it or not.
Yup, and they also played Brooklyn, Philly A.C. & Newark this fall as well.
I used New England as a baseline, but if you expand both bands’ appearances to include NYC, NJ & Philly, I think you would find they play the Northeast as much, if not more, than pretty much anywhere.
Taking a quick look at Setlist.fm, it looks like you're probably right; I shouldn't have suggested Tool plays the Northeast as much (or more) than anywhere else, but I think my overall point, that we're hardly neglected here, still stands.
There are a couple of 21 month gaps in Tool's touring schedule over the last 8 years with almost no US dates: one where they played only AU / NZ / Japan in '13, (no US dates between June of '12 & March of '14) and one between April of '14 & January of '16 they played one show TOTAL (Monster Mash in AZ). That's 42 months out of the 64 where they didn't return to the Northeast in which they played all of one show in North America. That's almost 4 years, where they played only one US show.
Point being, I would say their lack of shows in the Northeast over the last 8 years is more a reflection of their lack of touring in general and little / nothing to do with avoiding the area. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my $0.02.
(apropos of nothing... in looking at Setlist.fm, I saw they played 2 shows at Red Rocks in 2010... God damn I wish I had caught the travel bug by then... I would have killed to see one of those shows)
As a band, Tool is originally from Los Angeles.
During the nine years of touring in between, they played SF and SD multiple times, skipping over LA each time. I know they played San Bernardino in 2017 (different county), but there was a 9-year gap between hometown shows.
Festivals are a shortened preview of a bands show that are experienced with thousands of non fans. Not a true concert experience. More like hearing them casually on the radio. It's perfect for fans that want to see a variety of bands and get sick partying doing it. It's a separate classification and a far inferior experience imo.
Boston is out of the way from most of the NE corridor and PJs obsession with only playing fenway over a 4 year period on the entire eastern half of the country is unusual. If they are barely going to tour they make it worse by focusing on the same ancient venue tucked away in the corner of the country. The largest city and most populated region in the country by far has seen 2 full PJ shows in 7 years. I'd hardly call that spoiled.
Tool has played a grand total of ONE arena show in NYC in 13 years, but avoided the major Eastern markets by touring mostly smaller US markets last spring, again this Jan and the majority of their mini tours 2014 to 2017. They play Jersey more than NYC. They just scheduled so many SoCal shows they had to cancel one.
I do remember years ago they liked playing in Bakersfield where Korn was from.
Driving up Cali, headed towards Sequoia we needed a place to stop for the night, no locked plans, just drove to where we were headed, and made a decision to stay at the Casino in Fresno. Why? I didn't know Fresno had a casino. I'm not to fond of Fresno but a newer place should be ok, I thought...
I wanted a beer for the room so we went a few blocks away and looking for a Circle K or something and the areas got shittier and shittier. My GF who has traveled the world looks at me and says, we should turn around.
I say "relax"
We stop at a Circle K and I get out, the group of guys by the walls next door perk up and look over towards the car that is out of place, the guy that got out and the way he is dressed is out of place. One circles the car on his bike. Now I knew this would happen and I'm not a small person so I don't give it much worry.
I buy my beer, watching out the corner of my eye and the clearly visible video cameras of outside, just in case.
I come out and there is a 5'4" Hispanic man in his late 40's who looks like he has been on a meth binge for the last month that was circling my car, asks me for some change.
I tell him Credit only my man.
He looks at me up and down and before riding away he says, "your little brother wants his shorts back"
I crack up and get in the car and my GF asks what he said and can we get the hell out of here!?!
So we get to the casino, which is not new... Check in. We aren't too thrilled about the location, the parking garage or the walk it took to get to the lobby...
As we walk down the corridor of the casino hotel I smell a familiar smell but can't place it.
I ask my GF what that is and she replies "broken dreams"
We chuckle.
We get to the door of the room with every intention of walking in and walking out for the disaster we are about to witness.
We open the door and it smells pleasant. It's clean. Spacious. The room is beautiful.
Didn't see THAT coming.
Very pleasant stay in that room but the rest of the place is an absolute cesspool...
Tool- I remember not wanting to drive the hour to NJ in 2012 (first area show in three years) and the next show within a five hour drive of here was not until 2017. So that year I drove to Hershey and fairfax as gov ball was too disgustipated for this old dude to stand six hours. I don’t get the festival logic of these 55 yo bands but whatever. I did almost go to the ball. It was an 11 year drought back then for me. Shame.
taking a quick look at Tool setlist.fm to challenge whether my memory is correct (MJK shows only)-
Since fall 2009, in the last 10 years, Tool has played a grand total of 15 shows in the Northeast. I’m leaving out cities that are more than 600 miles round trip from ny.
Before this fall, that total was 9 shows. Wikipedia says Northeast has about 20% of the country’s population ( not including DC metro population). 15 shows does not sound like 20% as Tool has toured a decent amount. I’d like to include DC shows and not the Pittsburgh region as DC is more accessible by ground transport
Over this time, they played as many shows down under which has half the population as here. Check out all the San Diego shows, Texas , Fresno, New Orleans and on and on during this time. Check out all of their standard 20 show runs over the last decade between albums where they toured and maybe they hit VA as the closest to the NEast. I think there was a run of years VA saw more shows than the northeast.
i think they have played Rochester buffalo and Pittsburgh more than nyc.