Tool Deliver Five 20-Year Track Resurrections at Oceania Tour Opener

Tool, photo by Travis Shin

Tool touched down in Oceania over the weekend to kick off an eight-show run through the region with two nights at Auckland, New Zealand’s Spark Arena. These shows marked the band’s long-awaited return to New Zealand after five years away (frontman Maynard James Keenan wryly apologized for bringing COVID to the country during their previous performance in March 2020), and the storied prog-metal outfit honored the occasion by resurrecting several songs that have been dormant for more than two decades.

Tool tore into their first staging at Spark Arena on Saturday, Nov. 22, with “The Grudge” and “Fear Inoculum.” After greeting the crowd and threatening to unleash “songs we haven’t played since you were sperm,” Keenan, Danny Carey, Adam Jones and Justin Chancellor stormed into “Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann),” drawn from 2006’s 10,000 Days and performed for the first time since 2009.

This was only the first in a litany of rarities. Alongside other essentials like ”Jambi,” “Rosetta Stoned” and “Intolerance,” the quartet dug up 2001’s “Disposition” (last played on November 24, 2002), “H.” (last played on November 18, 2002) and the 1993 Undertow standout “Crawl Away” (last played on August 8, 1998). The band closed out night one on a high note during their encore, which paired “Chocolate Chip Trip” and “Invincible” with their second cover of Black Sabbath’s Hand of Doom, which they debuted at the metal originators’ Back to the Beginning all-star farewell show in July.

On Sunday night, Tool returned to the stage with several of the same standards from the night before, then continued to defy expectations with their first version of the 10,000 Days cut “Intension” since March 2014. Undertow ripper “Prison Sex” came crashing in for the first time since April 2002 before the band wrapped up their main set with “Sweat,” then capped off the evening with the same encore structure as night one, plus a grand finale of “Vicarious.”

Tool will continue their Oceania series on Friday, Nov. 28, with the first of two nights at Adelaide, Australia’s Adelaide Entertainment Centre. After shows in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, they’ll fly out to Japan and Hawaii to end a long year on the road. Find tickets and more information at toolband.com.