1996.11.14 - Chicago, IL, USA @ Aragon Theatre
Source: DAT --- Sonic Studios DSM6 > 65hz bass cut > Sony TCD-D7
Taper: Trade Crazy
Gen: 1st from Master
Notes: Very clear sound. The levels are low up until about 12:15 on track one, apparently the taper could not see the levels correctly up until that time. Once he got them right (the levels), the recording soars in quality. At about 1:25 on track 2, the crowd surged forward hard & he was crushed for a moment. That is barely audible. This was recorded right of the sound board. Only a couple occasions of hearing the crowd discuss useless information. Otherwise, one of the best '96 recordings around. Not as clear as Dallas, TX '96 but pretty damn close. Can hear Dan's bass drum just tap along. There are numerous incomplete single disc sets as well as even more MP3 sourced bootlegs floating around but, thankfully, this is not one of them. The sound sometimes sounds like it the microphone is being shifted by the recorder; goes from one side to another. For some reason, the '96 tour has always been a very interesting time-period for Tool as it is right around the time they started to get popular & get some editorial credit. One note about this recording, be careful. There are tons, tons of versions of this floating around. Make sure you try to attain the best possible version you are able. Won't regret it, classic performance with an excellent capture.
CD 1
Time: 64:03
Third Eye
"Chicago. We're Tool. That's Justin, Justin Chancellor, our new bass player."
Stinkfist
"It's kind of cold here. I sent all my laundry of to get washed this morning, and somebody stole it so I'm just stuck in my underwear, so it's kind of chilly. So I'll probably be this way for the rest of the tour 'cause I sent all my laundry out, so I have nothing else to wear so, any of you have any extra clothes you want to give me, that's cool."
46 & 2
"This was uh, this was our last show with the Cows(?), we'd like to thank them for being out with us. I hope you guys enjoyed the Cows, they're an awesome band."
Swamp Song
Eulogy
"Let's try something. I'm going to count to three, and I want you all to dig way down, way down in that darkest corner you can find, and I want you to say, "Yes". One, two, three"
(Crowd) -"YESSSSSSS"
"Just say yes."
Prison Sex
"Lets eh, take a moment to talk about Prison Sex. Most of you who, are already aware, the song deals with the cycles of abuse, and identifying the cycles, trying to break the circle, so to speak. The next step in that process of understanding that cycle is to, work through it, after having identifying it. This song goes out to Billy Rowls. This song's called Jimmy."
Jimmy
Pushit
CD 2
Time: 27:25
Merkaba
Sober
"This is the last song... on our first album. Let's talk a little about that, shall we? Any of you who have really taken the time to study mythology or religons, you find that underneath the surface there's a lot of good stuff in there. All the religons have stuff in common like Unity, a connection with other people, being cool to each other, evolving thoughts, it's all there. What happens is somebody kind of thinks that there particular process to those ends is better than somebody else's, and they start killing each other over it, and then it gets fucked up. That's what this song is about, those kind of assholes."
Opiate
"Okay we'll do another one. Although this song on the surface may sound like its kind of negative, and apocalyptic, it has more to do with getting back to what matters, remembering our connection with each other, kind of like cleaning the slate and learning to swim in that big pool of the Collective Unconscious. So it's kind of a happy song."
Ænema