1998.08.29 - Santa Barbara, CA, USA @ County Bowl

Source A: DAT -- Sony ECM-959a > Sony TCD-D8
DAT: DAT-3 > Digital Clone-4
CD: Unknown DAT > CD

Note: The Salival version of Third Eye is 100% from this performance.

Notes: Recordings like this one are pretty rare. This source is not 'rare', per se, but the feeling of it is. Why? There is a fade-in of the taper running into the building as 'Eulogy' is slowly coming into auditory levels. It gets louder & louder & louder as the taper is confronted by security to 'go wait in line' & he decides to just make a run for it into the building. Finally, he makes it into the venue. Sound, at this point is a little brick-walled until he adjusts his recorder-volume (or it was done during the mastering process to CD). Even after the adjustment, a slight high level brickwall is apparent. Some collector's say that the recording is distorted. Nonetheless, you can seriously feel the anticipation & excitement of the event. Definitely a great one, IMO. It is lucky he got into the venue with his equipment partially exposed or unconcealed -- security yells 'hey, you have to wait in line' as he runs through. As it is, other people have quoted this recording as: distorted / bad / collector's only. I do not think so. Great capture of Tool on the second to last performance of 1998. Oh, and 2 guesses as to what MJK's persona was this evening.

CD 1
Time: 73:11

CD 2
Time: 48:09

Source B: DAT --- Sony ECM 959 > Sony TCD-D7 @ 48 KHZ
Position: Unknown
Transfer: DAT-M > Tascam DA-20 > coax > Audiophile 24/96 > Sound Forge > WAV (transfer by cu.org/GSP)
Taper: <>
Gen: 2nd from Master

Notes: Back in 2003, a collector + not a taper, received a copy of this show. It is unclear whether or not Pushit was on that DAT > Analog > CD  transfer but, regardless, "Pushit" is missing on maybe 95% of circulated recordings. Maybe it is because this show was able to be traded out as a 1CD as it clocked in @ ~71 minutes; beats me. Why anyone would release an intentionally incomplete recording is beyond me. As it is, great recording of a rather inspired performance. Although maybe not completely one for the record books; the tabla solo on Pushit with Aloke is pretty cool. As a note; there is the complete recording of Pushit as an MP3 sample, although, it is only 96kbs but that is because it is a pretty big file still at that size (11.2 MB). Perhaps that was actually one of the better performances of that song. The recording sounds like it was recorded from at least some distance away. The crowd is minimal although there are some noticeable instances of microphone movement.

DAT Time: 1:30:57

'Santa Barbara!!!'

Part of Me

’Santa Barbra, we have been touring now for about 2 months. Lots and lots of Santas. Santa Monica, San Clarita, Santa Ana. But I particular like Santa Barbra because of my big influence Barbra Streisand. So this is kind of a homecoming for me in a certain way.’

Eulogy

‘We have a guest. It’s my personal hairdresser; Miss Buzz Melvin. Can we have a hand for Miss Buzz? He does a fabulous pedicure as well. This is a song about deep passionate love.’

Stinkfist

‘You seem kind of tired what’s wrong? We are selling, you know, pillows and caramel tea in the merchandise stand if you need to get comfy or something. Otherwise wake up and have some fun.’

Swamp Song
Third Eye
 Sober

‘We have been trying something new for this last tour. We have been looking at oh one of our songs under a differently lay, on a different way. Hoping to see it almost like for the first time. And two of those times we have done that, we have included Danny’s probably future ?, so we are gonna try that tonight. This’s kind of a special song for me, a specially on this particular day. This is supposed to be the last day on the tour. Some kind of like the end of this and the beginning on something else and kind of feels that way. Right now like a change, on the horizon, especially for myself I don’t know about you. There’s a lot of people here tonight that are very special to us, came up from LA, came from all over. And a lot of emotional changes, not really gonna go into it because, ? ? into words so we gonna do this song and you can figure it out for yourself. This song is out to all those people that are here as our guests, especially the quiet one if you are here.
Find that vulnerable yet conformable spot, close your eyes and see if you can’t find a certain kind of strength not normally associated with power, mind, the strength to be emotional, the strength to be vulnerable, the strength to cry and the strength to change, and to walk into places you never been before.’

Pushit
(alt.)

‘Ok so, this next song is the last song, before the next song. This is as song that must people kind of misinterpret but that’s ok because that’s what it’s all about, right. It’s all about discovering, finding it out to yourself, thinking for yourself. Must people think this song is about bad real state choices. Some people think it’s about rectal water sports. But it’s actually about more than that. It’s about getting back to what matters. About choosing compassion over fear. About thinking for yourself. Mostly about remembering your connecting with each other by driving back into that pool of collective unconscious and learning how to swim again.’

Ænema

‘The last time we where in Santa Barbara, we where walking around somewhere and some kid with dreadlocks and a ? eye said “hey dude – I ? you shoppers for a pass”. So I shot him. ? is a shocker anyway.
Just kidding I didn’t shot anybody. We don’t do this song very often because people take it literally. They confuse anger for hatred and vice versa and they are not the same thing so; be angry and not hateful.
This song goes out to the person who it’s named after; Pete ?.’

Jerk-Off

‘Goodnight.’

Source C:  Unknown Video Recording Equipment / Center SBD Angle
Transfer:  VHS > DVD
Transfer: 3G > VHS > S-Video > Plextor PX-AV100U > U-Lead DVD > DVD  (transfer: 2005)

Notes: One of the better videos floating around... maybe. The copy I has is pretty clear without any fuzz or tape hiss. A master>DVD upgrade would be nice but no one seems to have any specifics on the recorder. Taped from the left upper balcony, there are actually some very good & rather professional looking shots & close-ups of the band. This recording is quite interesting due to the fact that the majority of the recording consists of stage-shots & close-ups/outs of each band member, then the stage again. In>out>in>out. Nice & steady as well. The audio itself is, in many ways, superior to the decent video quality, not too shabby. The high end is, if anything, too loud. The taper, a couple of times, takes his camera & looks over the audience to get a look at the entire venue, this gives us a sense of perspective of not just where the taper is but the size of the venue. Tool performed better than good this night. Maynard is dressed as the -woman- this night complete with a big, black wig & an evening gown.

Time: 1:31:18