1992.04.25 - New York City, NY, USA @ CBGB

Source: Analog --- Sony ECM-909 > Sony WM-D6

Notes/Galen circa 2003: This recording is fairly new, in middle 2003, to be openly traded throughout collections. Without a doubt, at least at this point, the recording quality is by far the best known to exist from this time period of 1992. With only a faint layer of tape hiss, the listener is treated to a fantastic performance. There must have been very few people in the crowd this night and the taper was fairly close to whatever 'stacks' or PA system this club had at the time. Taking a guess, just listening to the recording, there really could not have been more than 30 people in the audience - I very well could be totally wrong but maybe I am correct as well, who knows? The guitar and bass (high & low frequencies) are disturbingly clear, especially for this time period. There are tapers, these days, who cannot match the clarity of this performance & recording; think that there is a lot to be learned from analog technology. Perhaps. Tool seemed to be simply ripping through this set & not really in a very social mood. I mean, really, they were pretty much an unknown band opening up for the Rollins Band at this point in their career. Still, even at this early stage, you can tell there is something different about this group & the music they create.

Notes/Galen 2008: There is another version of this show, the same source, which also contains the exact same performance but also has a Quicksand gig from 04.26.92 at the end of Tool's set. That disc has a total time of 80:00 mins. I am not trading that out as I have a feeling doing so would only confuse the situation with this date further down the line. Ryan notes that Erik Wightman brought this into the trading pool, however, if I remember correctly it was not Erik but Jeff Shaw.

Notes: by - Ryan A circa 2008: Furious, early renditions of many of the older songs at one of New York's most famous hard rock clubs (now defunct unfortunately). Bottom is just pure aggression. I like the eventual album version MUCH better, but this is interesting to say the least. It's hard to gauge what the crowd's reaction was to this music/band - almost completely unknown at the time. As Galen put it, Tool were not in a social mood tonight. And that typifies most all of their earliest shows. They were out there to play hard and rage against the pop music scene. Kick your fucking ass with their new brand of hard rock, then get off stage.  That and Maynard did not seem to very comfortable as the front man and mouthpiece of a band. Kudos go to Eric Wightman for bringing this one out into the trading pool.   

Maynardism: There is no talking this night, if there is, it is cut for some reason

Time: 44:53

Setlist:

Part Of Me
Hush
Crawl Away <slight cut, tape flip>
Sober <slight cut at intro>
Sweat
Swamp Song
Bottom
Opiate <slight cut before song>
Jerk-Off