Brett CallwoodLearn to Swim: Tool might not be the most prolific of rock bands, having released just five full-length studio albums in its 34 years of existence (not everyone can be the Beatles, but that number is still remarkably low). Still, every Tool release is an event. Every Tool show is an event. And that would appear to be by design.
As a result of all this, the band carries an air of mystery. We don’t know what it will do next, we certainly don’t know what frontman Maynard James Keenan is thinking. But we do know that when Tool performs, it offers an experience. It barely matters that the last album, Fear Inoculum, was released four and a half years ago. Or even that the preceding 10,000 Days came a full 13 years before that. By now, we know that Tool will do things when they’re ready, on their own terms, and that works.
On Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day of course) and Feb. 15, Tool will perform at the Crypto.com Arena. That’s two local shows by hometown heroes, and guitarist Adam Jones suggests that the set lists won’t necessarily be identical.
“We do have very devoted fans and a lot of them do come for both nights,” Jones says. “So we just like to mix it up a bit.”
It’s only been a few months since Tool performed at the first-ever Power Trip festival in the Coachella Valley. They performed on the same night as thrash titans Metallica, and Jones says that it was one of the best nights of his life.
“Metallica and all those other bands, just playing with them,” he says. “It was just very strange because it’s not really our crowd. But it was a really good challenge, to kind of step in and do what we do and try to focus on why we do it. It was great.”
These two arena shows will be different, but they will still be events. Just not because of, y’know, Valentine’s Day. Not really, anyway.
“Yeah, we’re gonna have little children running around like Cupids and we’re gonna have hearts,” Jones says with a laugh. “I’d love to do something special. We haven’t talked about it as a band, what we’re going to do, but my family is going to be there. My bandmates are great. So there’ll be lots of love, you know? Absolutely. I love that holiday.”
We had to ask if there might be any new songs in the set. We can dream at least. Sadly, not this time.
“No. I mean, sometimes we go off paths,” Jones says. “Sometimes we’ll take a left turn on our own song and kind of jam a part. But no, nothing new. Just rockin what we do.”
Most likely, there will be another Tool album eventually. All in good time. But again, this band being this band, we have no idea when that will be. Jones does say that the members are always sending stuff to each other, so we at least know that the creative juices continue to flow.
“We did a bit of writing before Christmas,” he says. “It’s just been hard. We’ve had some curveballs thrown at us. On the last tour Danny Carey’s hip was going. It was so bad, he was limping and the doctor said it was bone on bone, like, there was nothing there. And he was in a lot of pain. He’s basically Eddie Van Halen, on drums. I admire how much he rips his guts out to play, especially with that pain. And so over that Christmas break, he got a hip replacement. We’re all biting her nails. He made a 100% recovery, and he’s back to being the monster that he is.”
Besides Tool, Keenan has A Perfect Circle and Puscifer to work with when he’s not on Tool duty. Meanwhile, while Jones might dabble with friends, his focus is on his family.
“I’ve got three kids,” he says. “That’s really taken over the urge to be artistic and be productive. That’s my new vice, and I love it. I love being Mr. Mom. I love the crying, the vomiting, the whining – I love every bit of it. I honestly do. We just had a new kid. And I still had that fire burning in me to make art. Do music. It didn’t work out, but it was a job at Legacy, going back to doing makeup effects. They were working on the new Alien movie, and they’re like, ‘why don’t you come in and sculpt with us?’ I almost did it. But it didn’t work out. We actually had started writing a little bit. I just live life and search for those things that make me happy – my band, my family and the ocean – I just try to keep it simple.”
(Travis Shinn)
Children do change things. When it comes to music, we might encourage them to listen to the things we like to listen to, but eventually, they find their own path and listen to their own things. That’s how it should be.
“That’s the great thing about kids, they’re little people and I don’t force anything on my kid,” Jones says. “Like, I really like wrestling. I’m just letting him see if he discovers it on his own, just like music. At some point, I would play music and he’d be like, ‘Daddy, this is too loud.’ And now he’s 10 years old. Just discovered music and I’m thrilled. He’s listening to songs like the Five Nights at Freddy’s theme. You know, it’s his thing.”
That Tool. Family men and side projects and all manner of things that can collectively keep them from Tool. They’re all living full lives. But again, when Tool does reconvene, special things happen. And they have plans for 2024.
“We’re going to Europe, which I’m excited about,” Jones says. “Just some festivals and some of our own dates. We’re talking to the record company about, we’ve always wanted to do a film. But we don’t want to do a film that’s just, you know, thrown on YouTube. We’d like to do something really substantial. And maybe it has a little more complexity than just a live concert.”
Now that will be worth seeing.
Learn to Swim: Tool performs at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, and Thursday, Feb. 15, at the Crypto.com Arena.
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