According to a recent post on Toolband, there will be 100 Limited Edition shirts featuring concert specific artwork at each show.  No word yet on the cost and sizes available but I hope to have more info from Fourtheye readers soon.  Here’s the Cedar Park shirt:

In other news, reports so far suggest Wovenhand are indeed supporting, at least in New Orleans. So much for the fansites being wrong! Also mentioned was that the Tool stage setup is looking quite different from that last US tour.  I’m sure some pictures will come in later today.  Thanks Kanudah.  I imagine Tool are probably on-stage or close to it as I write this!

Basejumper also sent me an email saying that apparently Ticketmaster as listing hip-hop group Dälek as the support in Red Rocks night #2.

Anyone who feels like grabbing me one of those shirts – let me know and we can come to some kind of arrangement…

Blair just published the June 2010 Newsletter on Toolband.  It’s a pretty short and straight forward one talking mainly about the tour.  Interesting thing to note is that:

• Apparently the band listed on various Tool fansites as the support isn’t correct.  We’ll see in under 24 hours if Wovenhand are really playing I guess.  We should know who will be supporting all the shows by Monday.
• He doesn’t know what will be played, but noted they’ve been practicing a song each off Aenima and Lateralus that weren’t played last tour.  They also practiced and older song but that had a ?? next to it on the setlist.
• Strongly suggested that LA dates are good, just waiting on on-sale date clarification.
• Toolarmy members can look forward to some updates from the Tour Manager, and possibly Junior as well.

According to the website Antimusic, folk rock band Wovenhand will be supporting Tool on some of the dates for the coming tour:

• June 19th – New Orleans, LA – UNO Arena
• June 20th – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
• June 22nd – Cedar Park, TX – Cedar Park Center
• June 23rd – Oklahoma City, OK – Ford Arena
• June 25th – Kansas City, MO – Spirit Center
• June 26th – St. Charles, MO – Family Arena
• June 28th – Denver, CO – Red Rocks

I took a listen to their stuff on youtube, and it’s not really my thing.  I wonder who else will be supporting this tour…

The next Tool tour is almost upon us, and while some of us are still waiting to buy tickets, others deep in the south of the United States wait with baited breath for some kind of change to the setlist.  What will they play?  Will there be any cool lights?  Will Justin have a new guitar strap?  All these things and more we will find out shortly!

In celebration of this I have started a new Tour 2010 section in the forum.  I will create a thread for each show, and those of you that have anything to contribute (setlists, reviews, photo’s, whatever) feel free to do so.  Please refrain from creating new threads unless I’ve obviously missed a show, or it’s a topic tour related that really needs it’s own thread. 

This new forum will be more heavily moderated than the others in Fourtheye, mainly to make sure that they stay on topic.  Anyone willing to give me a hand in doing this, let me know (make sure you’re a Fourtheye regular though, I probably won’t consider making someone I don’t know a mod).

Also, I know some people are deliberately trying to avoid Tool forums so they don’t accidentally see setlists and such.  In order to make Fourtheye a safe location for these readers, from this point forward set lists can only be posted in the new Tour 2010 section. Any found in comments of normal Fourtheye posts will be deleted. 

Prepare your wallets!  The official Tool store on Toolband & Toolarmy is now open.  It appears to be the same in both locations (no exclusive Toolarmy stuff yet) and it can be accessed directly from here.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Maynard reveals that Tool are considering playing some new material on the road:

While the band isn’t touring behind any new material — its last album was 2006′s 10,000 Days — the frontman says Tool are quietly working on a new disc that’ll be released "when it’s ready." But they’re considering testing out some new material live. "We’re always writing," Keenan says. "If it comes together, yeah, you’ll hear some new stuff. If it’s not ready, you won’t."

I’d still be somewhat surprised if we heard any, but it’s nice to know they’re considering it. 

He also goes onto mention that work an a new A Perfect Circle album has commenced:

The frontman also revealed he is working on a fourth LP for massively successful side project A Perfect Circle, their first disc since 2004′s Emotive. "We’ve got some riffs and some music. It’s just basically playing it over and over again while driving and waiting for things to fall into place."

Thanks to everyone who emailed me the link.

Blair has just posted an update to Toolband including dates in both Las Vegas and a new on in San Diego:

Just confirmed are shows in Las Vegas and San Diego. The on-sale date for both shows is this Saturday, JUNE 12th.

Thursday, July 15 – San Diego @ Viejas Arena

Friday, July 16 – Las Vegas @ Planet Hollywood Theater.

Note that the Vegas date is the 16th of July, not the 17th as initially reported.  See the tour page for more details.  Still no word on the LA dates.

Granger sent me an email today saying that he heard on the radio today an announcement that Tool will be playing at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino on the 17th of July in Las Vegas.  No word from Toolband at this stage, nor is there anything on Ticketmaster, so lets cross our fingers for some more details soon.

Fans wanting to spend the week in Vegas will be happy to hear that Justin Bieber plays the same venue on the 24th of July…

Update: Live Nation seems to have ticketing information – apparently on sale on the 12th of June at 10am PST.  Still waiting confirmation from Toolband.

Word on the Tool Hotline in regards to tickets:

The dates were announced the evening of June 3rd and went on sale the morning of June 4th, but were subsequently pulled from Tool band and Ticketmaster. According to Ticketmaster, the ticket sales were pulled from their site by the promoter but the dates still stand and the promoter will announce a future on sale date (hopefully with more than one day’s notice!). Stay tuned.

I don’t remember them being on Toolband, perhaps they were briefly. Either way, it looks like there should be an announcement and proper sale of these tickets soon.

I thought this was worth a new post in case you skimmed that last one.  Tool LA Dates are confirmed on Ticketmaster and go on sale tomorrow (4th June) at 10AM.  Don’t miss out!

And now some editorial content if I may indulge you:

Personally, while this doesn’t effect me directly (aside from having to read shit load of negative comments on my website), I wake up today feeling pretty disappointed about how one of my favorite bands has handled this situation.  It’s hard to point fingers at anyone in particular, we don’t know who did and didn’t have information on this show – I’m the kind of person who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, so if it wasn’t mentioned on Toolband, then I’m guessing that Blair legitimately didn’t have the heads up.

To give fans virtually no notice of the event through official channels is really disappointing and I understand why many readers here are pissed.  I know if I missed out on tickets to a show locally because I didn’t hear about the gig I’d be outraged as well.

I don’t know anything about the US ticket scene, except for the fact that Ticketmaster seem to dominate.  I do know that certain bands, including some that many consider to be Tool’s peers (NIN for example) have shown more initiative towards ticket sales and have gone to long lengths to help fans get to gigs.  That Tool aren’t going down this road as well is frustrating to me.  They may want to bury their heads and ignore certain aspects of the industry, but without bands like Tool and NIN leading the way in redefining the music industry, it will just end up going nowhere.  For a band with some strong views about politics and such, and who seem to encourage themes of discovery, pushing boundaries and change, it’s disappointing that when they are big enough to influence and change the music industry, they at least publically seem unwilling to do so.

I sincerely hope that last nights/this mornings fiasco was a one off and that it never happens again.