The lawyer considering taking legal action against progressive metal icons Tool and the promoters of their recent ‘Tool Live In The Sand‘ event has newly spoken to the media on the matter. By now you’ve likely seen the uproar over the aforementioned band’s time onstage at that destination festival last weekend.
Fans flocked to the event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic expecting to see ‘two unique sets’ performed by the multi-platinum outfit. And while technically that criteria was met, some fans of the group were left feeling betrayed. Not only did Tool fail to deliver any deep cuts or surprise setlist additions, they also played four of the same four songs (“Fear Inoculum“, “Rosetta Stoned“, “Pneuma” and “Jambi“) each night. The nightly setlists for the festival ran as follows.
Friday, March 07th:
“Stinkfist”
“Fear Inoculum”
“Rosetta Stoned”
“Pneuma”
“Jambi”
“Schism”
“The Grudge”
“The Flood”
“Invincible”
“Vicarious” (first time since 2020)
Saturday, March 08th:
“Fear Inoculum”
“Ænema”
“Rosetta Stoned”
“Pneuma”
“Jambi”
“Descending”
“Chocolate Chip Trip”
“Intolerance”
Video footage of fans allegedly booing the band for the repeat inclusions has circulated online. Images of fans venting their disappointment through vulgar signage targeting members of the group has also cropped up online.
Given that ‘Tool Live In The Sand‘ served as Tool‘s first-ever headlining destination festival, and the fact that the exotic location of the venue commanded a high premium price with travel and such in contrast to that of a regular Tool show, the resentment experienced by attendees quickly spread online among the band’s fan communities. Admittedly, with a history of hefty price tags on their various merch offerings through the years, Tool haven’t exactly generated much goodwill when it comes to premium pricing.
As revealed yesterday, March 10th, one attendee of ‘Tool Live In The Sand‘, Augusta, GA-based lawyer Stas Rusek, began canvassing for disgruntled attendees of the festival to potentially launch a class-action lawsuit for the band allegedly failing to deliver on the promise of two ‘unique’ sets. That advertisement was posted via Facebook and can be seen below:
In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Rusek said the following of his potential suit against the band and the festival’s promoters, whom he feels committed “a classic bait and switch” by failing to meet the expectations of some fans with the setlists. He told the aforementioned publication:
“The potential lawsuit against the promoters of Tool In The Sand is indeed being investigated. We have had lots of interest from Tool fans who attended the festival, a category which I personally fall into.
These were my 27th and 28th Tool shows. There was a palpable sense of betrayal in the air as the show began the second night, and it lingered throughout the remainder of the weekend.
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, ie no repeats, was the determining factor for most attendees to pull the trigger on spending thousands of dollars to attend.
Most Tool fans, like me, have attended multiple shows on the same tour, and we know that, due to the spectacular and complex nature of their show, most songs will be repeated. However, this is not what festival attendees were promised.”
‘Tool Live In The Sand‘ took place March 07th-09th and also featured sets from Primus, Mastodon, CKY and a number of other artists. Jess Margera, drummer for CKY, took to social media to comment on the online uproar regarding Tool‘s performances at the festival, stating:
“The internet sucks so much sh*t. No one booed at all, everyone here had a fucking blast. Nerds in their mom’s basement who thrive on negativity because no one will f*ck them. This place isn’t real life at all.”
