Watch Tool’s rhythm section play Ænema for an audience of college students

Tool
(Image credit: Mark Donohue /YouTube)

It’s not every day that you turn up for a college lecture and find the rhythm section of one of rock’s biggest and most respected bands casually jamming on some of their most iconic songs.

That was the scenario which unfolded at Berklee College Of Music on November 14, 2019, when students were treated to a private showcase gig from Tool’s Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey, hosted by the Steve Bailey from the college’s Bass Department. Footage of the Tool duo playing Ænema has now surfaced online, offering a unique insight into the skeletal structure of the song, which is one of the high points of the LA quartet’s 1996 Ænima album.

The footage from the performance was captured by bassist Mark Donohue, and originally shared on the WAL Bass Collective instagram page. 

While there are currently no Tool live dates on the horizon, vocalist Maynard James Keenan recently decided to share a short film about his ducks with the world.

“It just seems like there’s a lot of negativity floating about, and I think we just needed a little boost of light,” Keenan told the Consequence Of Sound website, explaining his thinking behind the seven-minute film, titled An Easter Story. And who could argue with that?

At Berklee in 2019, Danny Carey revealed how he came to form Tool with Keenan when the pair lived in the same Los Angeles apartment block.

“He used to scream at people outside the window, and I thought, ‘Wow, that guy’s got an amazing voice’,” Carey explained. Carey ended up sitting in on a rehearsal when Keenan’s regular drummer didn’t turn up, and the duo then began practising together daily. “We played six gigs [after that], and then we got signed,” the drummer told the music students. 

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