The legions of Fibonacci sequence-loving fans who pledge allegiance to Tool are undoubtedly a dedicated bunch. They're willing to shell out a lot of money on tickets and vinyl, but they're also not afraid to complain when they feel like they're being ripped off (lest we forget that $810 Fear Inoculum vinyl).
We're facing another such occurrence now, following the band's Live in the Sand destination festival this past weekend at the Hard Rock and Royalton all-inclusive resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Tool performed two headlining sets for the three-day affair, which also featured a stacked bill including Primus and Mastodon — both of which debuted new lineups, with the latter having just announced the departure of founding guitarist-vocalist Brent Hinds.
UPDATE (3/11, 3:41 p.m. ET): Tool may now be facing a class action lawsuit over their failure to deliver "two unique sets" at the festival. Spearheaded by Augusta, GA-based lawyer Stasio French Rusek, a group of Live in the Sand attendees are considering suing the event's promoters over the phrasing in the advertising.
"We have had lots of interest from Tool fans who attended the festival, a category which I personally fall into," Rusek told Metal Hammer. "What it boils down to is that purchasers of the festival package were promised 'two unique sets' by Tool. While the comments on these posts argue about what 'unique' means, the reality is that the opportunity to see Tool play two unique sets, i.e. no repeats, was the determining factor for most attendees to pull the trigger on spending thousands of dollars to attend."
According to various accounts of the proceedings, the band's 10-song first set and nine-song second set (which was apparently cut short) had four songs in common. Rusek's firm, Stasio French Rusek, LLC, is urging fellow disgruntled fans who feel entitled to financial compensation to get in touch.
Mastodon had YouTube Ben Eller, who's best known for his This Is Why You Suck at Guitar video series, in Hinds's place, but it's unclear as of yet if the Tennessee musician will join the lineup permanently. Primus also played their first set with new drummer John Hoffman, who they found through an open audition process after the exit of longtime timekeeper Tim "Herb" Alexander last year.
But back to Tool pissing people off: the band had promised Live in the Sand attendees "two unique sets," which they apparently failed to deliver, resulting in booing and members of the crowd yelling "fuck you" after the abridged second set left something to be desired. Tool reportedly only played nine songs in the second set, some of which were also part of the first one. (Single-day passes were not available for the event, so it was presumably the same people hearing the second set that heard the first one.)
There's brief, blurry fan-shot evidence of the audience's discontentment, which has been shared on Reddit. There, some fans are claiming that, with travel and hotel, attending Live in the Sand could cost as much as $10,000 USD. Numerous users have pointed out that frontman Maynard James Keenan asked the crowd if anyone hadn't been there for the first set, as if he himself didn't realize that single-day tickets had not been sold.