On August 30th, Tool will finally unveil their first new record in thirteen years, Fear Inoculum. As we anxiously count down the microseconds until we’re blessed with 85 minutes of mind-melting madness, let’s take a moment to reflect on the band’s humble beginnings.
Footage of what is, allegedly, Tool’s first-ever live performance has surfaced on the internet. The fourteen-minute video witnesses the band deliver a blistering set, featuring cuts from beloved tracks ‘Part of Me’, ‘Hush’, ‘Sweat’, ‘Cold and Ugly’ and ‘Sober.’ The footage is truly unnerving, and Maynard James Keenan looks like that bizarre, Voldemort fetus from the fourth Harry Potter film. Check it out below.
Watch: Footage from the first Tool live performance in 1991
“The frustration I felt at that time is definitely what got this project off the ground then. I’d had good friends in Boston and I’d been successful at the pet store and I believed was on the right path. Then I lose everything and I’m living on $400 a month,” Maynard James Keenan shared of the formation of Tool. “I needed to destroy. I needed to primal scream and I needed to be loud enough to make people go, ‘What the fuck was that?!’ I needed to get it out. It was that tipping point where you either become a serial killer or a rock star.”
Earlier this month, Tool finally released their music to Spotify last Friday, causing every one of the band’s albums (and one EP) to hit the top 10 on the US iTunes charts.
Last week, the band blessed us with the first taste of what we can expect from their forthcoming record, with title track ‘Fear Inoculum.’ The ten-minute epic was produced by the band and mixed by Joe Barresi (who also worked with Tool on 10,000 Days).
