1994.03.03 - London, England @ Astoria II

Source: Analog --- Realistics > Unknown Recorder

Notes: Good sounding show but the sound is a little 'wavy'; if that makes sense. This is  most likely the product of the same taper as 05.27.93 & 05.28.93. Definitely a good listen, low crowd noise. Y'know, it's funny, Europe has consecutively produced higher quality of recordings than America. C'mon tapers, we still need to catch up. Let me put it like this; this recording - the unprofessional feel of it, with a little talking by taper & crowd, is what Americans are mainly producing in 2002. Way ahead of it's time if you look at it like that. recordings are like this. Most tapers in the UK just use better stuff, have greater knowledge & they have less security to worry about than we do in the States. But anyway, this is also a very cool recording. Unknown generation but a perfect copy, none-the-less. I highly recommend this one... not stellar quality but the performance, which is the most important thing, is great.

Notes: by - Ryan A: They come back to London after an incredible performance the October before and wind up playing a smaller venue (The Astoria II). The last song played tonight describes this show well. Equipment problems plagued them in the first few songs. First Danny with a drum pedal, then Adam with something. That left Maynard and Paul to improvise, which of course spells trouble. - Taking sarcastic jabs at the opening bands, themselves, the audience, whoever, leaving one of the nearby audience members to exclaim at one point (in a nasally southern hick voice, in London!) "I came all the way from North Carolina to see this shit?!" Fucking around most of the night, they never quite got in a groove, but played a pretty good 2nd thirds of the set. The recording I believe is analogue. It's not a bad recording for an Undertow show. The small venue allowed for an intimate sound. A small layer of hiss covers the sound and there is very little dynamics. But overall, it's certainly worth having if you are a collector. And especially if you a fan of MJK/Paul talking. There's more of that here than any other Tool show that I can recall

Time: 68:11

Setlist/Quotes:

Paul: "Hey ah uh uh uh."
Maynard: "Heh heh heh heh."

Cold & Ugly
<equipment malfunction>

MJK: "Hello. Hi. We're the Dream Warriors. We're from Los Angeles, California."
Paul: "We'd like to thank the gay doors for opening for us. Welcome to sound check."
MJK: "Last time we played in London we played a much bigger place. This is more fun. We kinda like to cater to our more selective audience."
Paul: "Our more intimate [inaudible]. This is an instrumental song from me and Adam because we have a broken drum pedal. It's called flight of the love sausage."
MJK: "Technical difficulties, sorry. This is probably why we're playing a smaller place. Okay so this is our last song, thanks for coming down."

Intolerance
<more equipment malfunction>

MJK: "Hey. We were here a while ago. It was October. And uh, I came across some really amazing information while I was here. I was in Manchester and I had an opportunity to spend to some quality time alone with Mr. Morrissey in my hotel room. I had some suspicions so I decided to interrogate him a little. After uh about an hour of fucking his ass and punching in the back of the head as hard as I could, he finally came clean and told me the truth. And this is the truth. Remember near the end of Elvis' life before his supposed death when he was all fat? He wasn't out of shape and on drugs, he was with morning sickness. He was pregnant with Liberace's illegitimate child. Morrissey was born from the ass of Elvis on that infamous bathroom floor in Graceland."
Paul: "It's true we've seen pictures."
MJK: "Yeah he uh, he was so mortified by what he produced that he handed his baby over to Tom Jones, you know their wet nurse. And he gave up motherhood and his singing career and moved into a trailer just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan where he lives today. The god's honest truth. This is a lot of fun, I like this."
Paul: "I put it away. Thank you. That was my bass solo. We don't really need a drummer do we? Did you guys all save your ticket stubs? They're redeemable at the bar for a free beer for each one of you. Run on up there, they'll be happy to help you."
MJK: "Hi. We're Tool. We'd like to thank our opening band Dream Warrior."
Paul: "What is a Dream Warrior anyway?"

Undertow

Paul: "This song is called Sober."

Sober
Prison Sex

MJK: "There's this thing going on. It's kind of a war. It's a war on personal freedom, self expression. And uh recently one of our generals died. Don't know if you're familiar with him - Bill Hicks, he's a comedian. Very good friend of ours, died of uh cancer of the pancreas last Saturday. And uh, if nothing else he lived a very full life, and got a lot accomplished. Unfortunately not a lot of people do that. They're scared, afraid to take risks. Willing to do compromising. And uh, our attitude is no compromising. This song is called 4 Degrees."

4*

Paul: "This next song is dedicated to our sweet lord Satan. It's called Opiate."
MJK: "More bullshit. Fucking government is lying to us again."

Opiate
Flood

Paul: "We're gonna have to play really fast 'cuz the gay disco's next. That's ok. Who hasn't sucked a little cock in their life, I have. I'll admit it."
MJK: "Ok we're going to take requests. No, not that one. Anything but that one. No, not that one either. Anything but those two songs. Go ahead. No, not that one either. Sorry."
Paul: "One at a time. This is Swamp Song."
MJK: "It goes out to Kevin Willis."

Swamp Song