The GRATEFUL TOOL

My topic for today had been aesthetics, but it looks like the release of Fear Inoculum, the fifth and latest TOOL album, and my receipt thereof as normally scheduled for 8/30 (thank God!), has provided me with a compelling topic.   In particular, the behavior of TOOL fans in the days leading up to the release brought to mind another fan base, that of the Grateful Dead.

Both bands have a fairly rabid base of fans who often behave irrationally, sometimes to the point of fanaticism.   With Jerry Garcia’s passing in 1995 the fervor over the older band has subsided.  With the exception of bassist Phil Lesh, the oldest surviving member, who is apparently too old to tour these days, the remaining members Bobby Weir (guitar and vocals), Bill Kreutzmann (drums) and Mickey Hart (percussion) accompanied by John Mayer, continue to tour without releasing new material.   I’ve seen a few shows and the fan base appears to be 70% old enough to have seen the band back with Jerry Garcia in 1995 or earlier.   Myself, I managed to see the band in 1992 and 1995, catching the very tail end of the original era, then a few more times more recently after the band reunited after Garcia’s death to play again. 

TOOL don’t have cursed keyboardists (Ron “Pigpen” McKiernan, Keith Godchaux, or Brent Mydland) and only one personnel change, original bassist Paul D’Amour replaced by current bassist Justin Chancellor around the time of the second album, Aenima.   The remainder of the band is charismatic frontman Maynard James Keenan (aka “MJK”), guitarist Adam Jones, and drummer Danny Carey.  Albums #1, 3 and 4 are Undertow, Lateralus, and 10,000 Days, plus EPs Salival and Opiate, partially live.  As my meme notes, TOOL do not have a proper live album as such.  By way of comparison, Clutch, who have been around the same length of time as TOOL, have put out 12 studio albums between Transnational Speedway League (1993) and Book of Bad Decisions (2018). 

Both bands give a unique live experience.  The Dead play two full 90 minute sets with a 30 minute intermission, and its famous “Drums/Space” jam with Kreutzmann and Hart is in the second set.  Every set is completely different, and you might even hear covers.  The light show is nice but not as impressive as TOOL’s.

TOOL sets are 80% the same night by night with 2-3 slots changing up.  With only 4 albums to choose from, and a principled objection to playing covers, the repertoire is limited.  The Dead had 13 studio albums from 1967 (self-titled) to 1990 (Without a Net), some of them effectively live albums, and a fair amount of covers thrown in. 

Maynard affects weird stage costumes which are mostly wasted as he sings in back of the stage, next to Carey, in darkness.  The band are overshadowed by their elaborate Alex Grey imagery behind them, which melts sound and vision together into an organic whole.   Both bands are strongly associated with not merely cannabis but also Hofmann/Sandoz inspired psychedelics, but such substances are helpful but not necessary to enjoy the experience of the live spectacle or the music itself.

Musically I’d describe the Grateful Dead as country music made by hippies with an infinite supply of LSD.  Oddly, country music fans don’t seem to like the Dead and vice versa.  Thanks to lyricist Robert Hunter, the words are more along the lines of Blue Oyster Cult than Blake Shelton.  TOOL are more like Pink Floyd morphed into as heavy as they could possibly be – David Gilmour pumped with steroids.  But unlike many of their peers, TOOL have a singer, Maynard, who ACTUALLY SINGS.  Yes, Cookie Monster is not in this band. 

Sadly, the fans of each can, as noted above, be somewhat obtuse.  With TOOL currently touring and putting out new material – as glacial as that now seems to be, with 13 years separating 10k Days and Fear Inoculum – the TOOL crowd is far more front and center than the Dead fans are. 

Maynard vs. Jerry.   Garcia was really non-objectionable.  Both had side projects:   MJK has A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, both of which go in one ear and out the other.  Garcia had the Jerry Garcia Band, who I saw in 1991 before even seeing the Dead themselves.  Maynard can be somewhat arrogant at times.  He runs a vineyard, produces a wine – Caduceus, which I haven’t bothered to overpay for as I’m not a wine fanatic – and loves guns, which doesn’t bother me.  To hear TOOL fans talk, though, Jones, Chancellor and Carey are session musicians who guest on TOOL albums to help out Maynard.  

I’d say the #1 fault of Deadheads is only listening to the Dead.   I was at a Dark Star Orchestra (DSO – one of the top Dead tribute bands) show at the 9:30 Club in DC wearing a Pink Floyd shirt and got a dirty look.  At the very least, Dead fans should listen to Pink Floyd.  Beyond that I can’t say that Deadheads are annoying enough to draw too much negative attention to the band itself.  Actually, Garcia himself said in a Playboy interview that the band is apolitical by nature and Republicans can listen and come to the shows.   Can’t imagine Trump at a Dead & Company show.  Or at a TOOL show, for that matter. 

I’m a member of the TOOL Army, but only joined recently and only got into the band when 10,000 Days came out and the band voiced its support for King Crimson.  All four shows I saw were 10K Days tour shows.   The fans can be a little pretentious, to say the least, like latter day Beatles fans.  The biggest issue I have is the fans who didn’t wait for 8/30, didn’t order the expensive, fancy Fear Inoculum package, illegally downloaded the album and were bursting forth with their reviews of it.   Yes, those of us who waited felt a little superior – rightfully so.

Revision 9/1/19.  As of now I’ve been able to listen to Fear Inoculum in its entirety three times, though as yet not the video itself; prior to that I heard “Descending” at the Fairfax concert (5/24/17) and “Descending”, “Invincible” and “Chocolate Chip Trip” at the Hampton show (5/10/19).   My assessment?  Excellent quality, comparable in quality to the prior four albums.  Six major songs ranging from 10:05 to 15:44 in length: “Fear Inoculum”, “Pneuma”, “Invincible”, “Descending”, “Culling Voices”, and “7empest”.  It’s TOOL people.

The Facebook Reaction from the TOOL CULT appears to vary as follows:

1.   Best album ever, naming my next child “Fear”

2.   Good, but not better than [prior album] – instigating massive debate on relative merits of the 5 albums

3.   Good, but breaking up the Fibonacci spiral of quality improvement and year intervals of 1/3/5/5/13 from Opiate to the current album.   Sorry.

4.  Good, but not worth the 13 year wait.

5.   Good, but not worth $40 for that damn CD packaging

6.   Sounds too much like TOOL

7.   Sounds too much like A Perfect Circle

8.   Not enough Maynard

The rest of you are welcome to join the cult or slam us as idiots for worshipping these four mortals whose music is inexplicably given such reverence.   You know, like us who worship Neil, Tim, Dan and Jean-Paul in Clutch.   Sadly, much of the contempt thrown as us TOOL fanatics is coming from the Maryland cult, as if these two bands, of admittedly much different styles and certainly far different productivity and stage shows, are necessarily mutually exclusive.   I say we can worship both Maynard AND Neil.   AMEN, brothers.