Tool Fans Upset After Band Plays Two Similar Sets at Festival

Tool fans are pretty upset after the band played two similar sets at their first-ever Tool Live in the Sand festival this past weekend.

The all-inclusive festival took place at the Hard Rock & Royalton Resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and featured performances from Primus, Mastodon, Coheed and Cambria, Eagles of Death Metal and a few others in addition to Tool.

Why Fans Are Upset With Tool

Tool headlined the festival Friday (March 7) and Saturday (March 8) night, but didn’t diversify their setlists much. Four songs made the setlist both nights — “Fear Inoculum,” “Rosetta Stoned,” “Pneuma” and “Jambi” — and they played a handful of other songs each night in addition to those four [via Setlist.fm].

Considering fans had to purchase vacation packages to attend the festival, many weren’t pleased that half of the setlist from the first night was repeated again during the second night — and they made it known.

“The show costing an exorbitant amount hoping for a great two night of music. Tool planned to play an hour and a half each night. The first night did not disappoint. Many great songs that fans were dying to hear. The second night started with a surprise,” a fan wrote on the Tool Reddit page.

“As far as I know you could not purchase tickets to one night of the show. Meaning that everyone here was here for two nights hoping to see an epic no repeat set… They only played an hour and mostly repeats from the first night. Why fly to the DR on a three-night ticket to watch an hour of repeat songs from the night before? Not sure what to say but this was a very disappointing show.”

Festival Attendees Expressed Their Frustration

Not only were attendees sharing their experiences online, but they voiced their frustrations at the festival too. The band was met with boos from the crowd during their performance on Saturday, which can be seen in footage that was shared on another Reddit thread.

“Never thought I’d actually see video of tool getting booed by die hards but yeah this is kinda deserved,” a fan commented on the post.

Several others shared that the festival promised “two unique sets” from Tool, and asserted that that wasn’t what they were given.

“People paid $3k for a ‘unique’ experience and setlist (which is literally what the festival claimed they would have and marketed it as such), and they ended up playing basically the same setlist they’ve played for the past two years on tour, with almost no variation from night one to night two,” another fan commented on the aforementioned Reddit post.

Other fans expressed their disappointment in different ways — one person put a sign that said “Fuck MJK” (Maynard James Keenan) on their balcony following the band’s Saturday night performance [via Reddit].

Other Fan Reactions

Despite the mostly-negative sentiments, some fans had a different perspective on what happened at Tool Live in the Sand. One person explained that the criticism may be a positive thing in the comments section of the Reddit video linked above.

READ MORE: 10 Signs You’re a Fan of Tool

“Honestly I think this can be good for the band. It shows them that they’re not on a pedestal and immune to criticism. Can’t put out a crap product (referring to the setlist) and expect people to be thrilled about it. Hopefully it humbles them a little bit and they learn from this,” they wrote.

Others argued that the setlists were unique to each other. When someone shared a screenshot of the two setlists on Reddit, another fan commented, “For Tool, this is extremely different. Seven songs different! That’s huge! Repeated four songs only. Fe Pnma RS & J. I’d love to see those two nights in a row!”

Someone else shared a screenshot of a comment with the two setlists, but it’s unclear whether it was a troll comment or not.

“Some of you have never gone to two shows on the same tour… and it shows. This is as mixed and fresh of a setlist as they’ve EVER played back to back. If you were expecting 100 percent different sets, then you don’t know this band at all,” they wrote.

See the full screenshot below.