What makes a song like "Bottom" so good isn't the quiet grooving over spoken-word in the middle, but the tight song structure book-ending it. What I had always loved about Tool was their songwriting. Why disappointed? The album seemed so modal, so stream-of-consciousness, so unstructured. But as "Wings For Marie, Part 1" opened and then the rest of the album subsequently played itself out, I found myself disappointed by a Tool album for the first time ever. there was "Vicarious." Next came "Jambi," and I was excited to hear the rest of the record. I hurried home, put the disc into my player, and hit play. From the opening notes, I new that "Vicarious" was destined to be another classic Tool song.Īs soon as I could, I found my way to a record store (most likely the now-defunct A&B Sound, on the south side of town) and purchased my copy of the new Tool album. Since Tool is a favorite of mine, I already knew that 10,000 Days would soon be released, but I hadn't expected to hear a new Tool song that night - their first in about five years. It was just an amazing time that I will never forget.īut before the concert, we were sitting in a booth - myself and a couple of friends and fellow band-mates. I got to meet Ty and Doug, Jerry played an incredible drum solo, I spent the whole concert front-and-center. The reason I was at Kingsknight Pub that night was because they had managed to book King's X in concert, and to this day that concert remains one of the best I'd ever seen. ( It appears that this somewhat remote, small pub still exists, so check it out if you get the opportunity.) I was sitting in a small bar in Edmonton, Alberta, called The Kingsknight Pub.
The single was the album's first track, "Vicarious." It was a remarkable occasion. I still remember the first time I heard the first single from Tool's 2006 album, 10,000 Days. This makes me one of Tool's original fans, unlike the bulk of their fanbase, which came to them some years later, and which ended up supplying most of the album sales for the "nu metal" and "rap/rock" bands of the '00s.Īt some point, I will have to write a post exploring the development of Tool from being an anti-metal, indie-grunge band, famous only for having a weird frontman and playing well at Lollapalooza to being perhaps the foremost progressive metal band of their time. Tool has been a favorite band of mine since 1993, the year they released their first full-length album, Undertow.