The Epic Debate: 1994-??-??
(aka 02/07/94 Atlanta) and 1994-04-17 Ft. Lauderdale
By: Ryan A,
February 2007
This is an analysis of the Tool audio recordings: 1994-??-?? mystery
recording (aka 1994-02-07 Atlanta,
aka “Tool’s Power” bootleg) and 1994-04-17 Ft. Lauderdale @ The Edge (aka
"Sober '94" bootleg). The dates and locations of these two shows are
debatable. Solidifying the correct dates and places for these shows should
be easy enough to figure out, but isn’t. So, what is the correct date and
place for 1994-??-?? mystery recording? And is the show labeled as
1994-04-17 Ft. Lauderdale correct and a different recording than 1994-??-??
I started out researching this thinking I’d easily come to answers to these
questions. But I ended up going down a number of paths with contradictory,
but interesting evidence. I’m not sure I can answer either question
definitively, but the following info will help the debate. The evidence will
be discussed first, then I’ll give my conclusions/theories at the end.
First, are these two shows actually separate recordings, or is 1994-04-17
Ft. Lauderdale simply an incomplete version of 1994-??-?? A comparison of
the two recordings indicates that the Ft. Lauderdale show is indeed a
different & distinct recording. The recording quality/sound of the two
recordings is different, the setlists and run times are different, and most
important - the between song banter from Maynard and Paul are different. See
below for the setlist and transcription of Maynard & Paul’s quotes. Not much
else to say about that.
Re: The Concert Reports
There was an old 1990s Tool fan site I found years ago (http://nuclei.com/tool/)
that I recently remembered and thought it might help in this debate. It went
dead several years ago, but stick the URL in the
Wayback Machine
- an archive of websites alive & dead for the past 11 years - and most of it
is revived. It’s a simple site, but click on the Concert Reports link.
There are great reviews of some Tool shows from 1993-1994. Some real gems.
The reviews are taken from the “tool-list” – an email discussion list that
I’ve belonged to since 1996, and has been in existence since 1994. They’re
all worth a read, but there are two reviews pertinent to this discussion:
-
“TOOL at The Edge, Jacksonville, FL by Trevor Conn.”
-
“TOOL in Baltimore! By Greg Thompson.”
Re: The 1994-04-17 Ft. Lauderdale Recording
The review written by Trevor Conn states that he “saw Tool for the first
time in Jacksonville, FL on April 17, 1994 at a club called The Edge.”
Collectiveunconscious.org and distortiononline both list the Jacksonville
show as taking place on April 13th and Ft. Lauderdale on the 17th
(coincidently at the same venue name “The Edge”). So, either the reviewer is
wrong about the date or our current knowledge base is wrong. The reviewer’s
email addy (@scri.fsu.edu) is from a department/institute in Florida State
University in Tallahassee. Of the four Florida cities Tool played in April,
Jacksonville is by far nearest to Tallahassee. So he most likely did go to
the show in Jacksonville; the uncertainty is the date. Trevor the reviewer
goes on to state 1) the set was short and 2) the concert was a near riot and
fans were jumping off the 8 ft high railings that bordered the sides of the
sunken pit floor. This description is consistent with the shorter setlist of
the 1994-04-17 recording, as well as Paul’s banter to the crowd on that
recording: "Come on you chickenshits. Jump, I dare you. Do it. Come on do
it. You afraid?" So this review might correspond with the 1994-04-17
recording. But again, either the date the reviewer gives for Jacksonville
(17th) or the date in our knowledge base (13th) is wrong. Looking at a map
of the cities Tool played in Florida, the listing in our knowledge base
(Jacksonville 13th, Orlando 14th, Tampa 16th and Ft. Lauderdale 17th) makes
sense as the itinerary descends down from the top of Florida (Jacksonville)
in a line to the bottom (Ft. Lauderdale). However, it would also make sense
to start at the bottom of Florida (Ft. Lauderdale) on the 13th, and work
their way up through Orlando and Tampa to the top (Jacksonville) on the
17th.
Conclusion: Contradictory evidence indicates that the Jacksonville
date is either the 13th or the 17th, and the recording seems to correspond
with Trevor’s review of Jacksonville. However, we can’t be sure so nothing
can be definitively concluded. We should be open to the idea that the
recording may be from either the 13th or the 17th in Ft. Lauderdale or
Jacksonville.
(Sidenote: Three out of the four venues in Florida that Tool played were all
named “The Edge” which confuses this whole issue. The Edge in Jacksonville
was renamed to
Plush,
The Edge in Ft. Lauderdale was renamed
Revolution
and I think The Edge in Orlando turned into
8 Seconds and is now known as The Edge Concert
Pavillion).
Re: 1994-??-?? Mystery recording (aka 02/07/94 Atlanta) – “Tool’s Power”
bootleg
As Galen detailed in his notes above, the DAT audio source for the
1994-??-?? mystery recording (ie. “Tool’s Power” bootleg) has been
incorrectly labeled as 1994-02-07 Atlanta @ The Masquerade for many years.
The recently uncovered
1994-02-07 Atlanta @ Masquerade video (whose date & venue is
confirmed correct) proves this as the video is a different show than the
mystery audio recording. So we know the audio recording is not 1994-02-07
Atlanta. And we also know that it must have taken place during the 2nd leg
of the 1994 US tour (April – May) because Maynard references Bill Hicks’
death, which took place in February 1994. Now refer to
Greg Thompson’s review of “Tool in Baltimore.” The
email of the review is dated Tuesday April 12, 1994 and his opening sentence
states “Well I saw ‘em last night in Baltimore.” He goes on to say that
“Tool played everything except Bottom …” So both of these statements
disprove the theory that the mystery date is April 11th in Atlanta. A)
Because they played in Baltimore on the 11th. And B) Because they played
Bottom on the mystery recording, and not in Baltimore. I should note that I
do trust Greg Thompson’s statements because he was the original creator of
the tool-list email discussion group (which then spawned Kabir’s toolshed
site), and was one of the first onliners to be very knowledgeable about the
band.
Conclusions
I have three theories about the date and place of
1994-??-?? mystery recording, the first being the most likely scenario.
1) The 1994-??-?? mystery recording is of one of the four April 1994 Florida
shows, most likely either April 14th in Orlando or (even more likely) April
16th in Tampa @ The Ritz. The two recordings in discussion here (1994-04-17
and 1994-??-?? “mystery recording”) sound very similar in sound quality.
They both sound like rich DAT recordings, which are rare for the Undertow
tour. So it’s likely these two shows were recorded by the same taper with
the same equipment. And it makes sense that he would hit two shows occurring
close together in the same state. Also, the venue name that has always been
attached to this recording is The Maquerade, which everyone assumes is the
venue in Atlanta that they played just two months prior on February 7, 1994.
As you’ll read
here
and
here, the Ritz in Tampa was originally a movie
theatre. But in the 1980s, it was redesigned into a concert venue / night
club called The Masquerade where a lot of alternative, punk and metal bands
played. So, The Ritz actually is The Masquerade, and this venue name
which has been attached to the recording all these years might indeed be
correct all along - just in a different city.
2) The 1994-??-?? mystery recording is 1994-04-19 New Orleans at the State
Palace Theater. Three bits of information lead me to this theory: A) Paul
references a voodoo curse in an introduction to a song, "This next song is
dedicated to Gorby's voodoo curse." Voodoo legend is common to New Orleans.
B)
This
trader lists a DAT
recording for 1994-04-19 New Orleans in his collection. The last update of
his site was May 9th 1999, well over 7 years ago. This was before there was
any kind of website giving a complete, accurate & condensed listing of Tool
tour dates (like Galen’s &
distortiononline), which gives a little more validity to the trader’s
listing. I doubt he just came up with that date and city out of his ass.
C) at 4:36 into song 11 on the mystery recording, a crowd member exclaims,
"Man for fucking Ministry, like the first 5 rows didn't have seats left."
2nd fan: "Dude, you saw Ministry over here?"
This site
contains a complete listing of all Ministry tours with dates and places.
Ministry did not tour in '93 and '94, but they did tour the southern U.S.
in December of 1992. And on December 12th, they played The State Palace
Theater in New Orleans, which is the only venue in common with Tool’s
April-May ’94 tour. And from
this set of pictures
of the State Palace Theater, it looks like there are indeed seats on the
floor (to be ripped up) for music concerts.
Side Note: The Failure Documentary
As Neognosis first pointed out, the band Failure
released a dvd documentary (“Golden”) where a scrolling list of tour dates
appears in the middle of the dvd. Failure opened for Tool throughout their
February – May 1994 tour so this initially looked promising in helping to
clear up the April 1994 dates. But unfortunately it is a bust. I rented the
Failure documentary dvd and captured some stills of the scrolling tour
dates.
Here is
a photo album of them.
It is confusing because there are no years listed, but it’s clear that it
starts off listing from Feb. 2, 1994 – Feb. 27 1994 (opening for Tool). But
then it skips right over the March, April and May dates and goes into August
dates. It then picks back up in July of 1996, into 1997 and finishes with
the summer ‘97 Lollapalooza tour we are familiar with. So, sadly we don’t
get any clarification on the April 1994 tour dates from this dvd.
Time:
59:15
Setlist/Quotes:
Cold and Ugly
Paul: "Hey what's up? What
does that say on your head? That's very strange that you have on your head.
This next song is called Intolerance."
Intolerance
Paul: "I heard that
being in the heat too long is really not good for your brain. Does that
explain you people? Yeah. There's gotta be something about that."
Undertow
Paul: "This is our top
40 elevator hit. It's called Sober, playing in an elevator near you."
Sober
MJK: "This is Ken. Ken.
Failure has a new record out. It's called Magnified. It's on Slash Records.
I suggest you buy it."
Prison Sex
Paul: "Come on you chickenshits. Jump, I dare you. Do it. Come on do it. You
afraid?"
Swamp Song
MJK: "This next song is
about the time I took a whole shit load of acid and listened to every
existing Joni Mitchell album consecutively. Most of you don't believe me,
but it's true. And that's why you don't understand."
Sweat
Paul: "Thank you very
much."
MJK: "We were in Manchester about 2 months ago. Are you familiar with
Manchester, England? I had the opportunity to spend some quality time alone
with my good friend Morissey in my hotel room. I had some suspicions about
some stuff so I thought I'd interrogate him in my own personal way. So after
about an hour of fucking his ass as hard as I possibly could and punching
him in the back of the head, he came clean. He told me the truth. Now you
guys maybe too young to remember this guy, but there's a guy named Elvis.
Remember him? Supposedly he died of a drug overdose, but this is not true.
See he was not all fat and out of shape from drugs, it was morning sickness.
Morning sickness. He was pregnant with Liberace's illegitimate child.
Morrissey was born from the ass of Elvis on that famous Graceland floor.
Elvis was so horrified and mortified and ashamed from what he produced from
his colonic womb, that he turned his baby over to his wet nurse, Tom Jones.
And moved to a trailer outside Kalamazoo Michigan
where he lives to this very day. Elvis is alive."
4 Degrees
Paul: "You've been a very kind and courteous audience. Ya'll very well
behaved. What a fucking bore. I didn't see anything catch on fire. No bones
were broken, or whatever. This is our last song; it's called Bottom."
Thanks."
Bottom
