Tool have dug deep for their current US tour, bringing out an instrumental tune they’ve not played live in 17 years while in Michigan recently.
If you’re a Tool fan, then you would likely be aware that the band have a stunning amount of songs that very rarely – if ever – get played live on stage.
Sure, you might be really keen to hear tracks like ‘Jerk Off’, ‘Crawl Away’, or ‘Hush’, but you’d have to go back at least 20 years if you wanted to see those classics get a look-in on the setlist.
However, for those who frequented the band’s sets back in the ’90s, you would have likely recalled a track called ‘Merkaba’ occasionally making an appearance.
Originally starting its life as an instrumental introduction to ‘Sober’, the tune evolved into its own track, and also made an appearance on their 2000 compilation Salival.
Once the new millennium hit though, performances of the track were rare, and following just four appearances of the track in 2001, the tune hasn’t been played since the group descended upon the Royal Theatre in Canberra back in 2002.
Thankfully, the song resurfaced once again on Saturday night at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan, where a shortened version of the tune was used as an introduction to their 2006 single ‘Vicarious’.
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Sadly, footage of the rare performance hasn’t surfaced as yet, with fans at Tool’s shows being warned they could be kicked out if they used their phones; something frontman Maynard James Keenan threatened A Perfect Circle audiences with back in 2017.
To his credit though, he’s allowed fans to start recording during their encore performance of ‘Stinkfist’, meaning that YouTube is currently lousy with copious amounts of shaky captures of the 1996 single.
In related news, Tool look set to announce their first Australian tour since 2014 on Friday. Following a cryptic message from Frontier Touring and a countdown clock that expires later this week, the metal masters are gearing up to grace us with their presence once again.
Here’s hoping that when they do visit in February of 2020, we find ourselves grooving out to the “some kind of psychedelic experience” that is ‘Merkaba’. Check it out below!
Check out Tool performing ‘Merkaba’:
