TOOL

We went to see TOOL last night at Staples Center, my longtime friend Danny (the drummer) got us VIP passes, so we were invited to a before party in the Green Room. So, when we arrived during ISIS’s set (the opening band) we had to show our little pass to so many ushers that wanted to direct us to our seats… but finally we got to the back of the arena and through a hallway (the same one the Lakers go through to get to their locker room) and approached the Green Room.

I was ready for a room lit only by black lights, with low sofas scattered around, spreads of food and liquor, and the band would be back there, getting ready for the gig by meditating, doing Yoga, having some Satannic ceremony, doing drugs or getting a massage… their entourage would be in full party mode, a few puffing on a hookah in a corner, women in lingerie coming on to the stage manager, lines of coke on a mirror, bowls of M & Ms with all the brown ones picked out. This would finally allow me to get a small taste of what being a mega-rock star is all about.

So finally we enter the Green Room… it is brightly lit, mostly empty and looks like a small hotel lobby… there are only three people there, one cooler with some pop and water, and other with beer. One person is telling another they have been getting some disturbing text messages from a mutual friend lately. I feel like we are crashing a tax preparer’s convention.

To add insult to injury, the walls are not even green. Not even close.

So we ditch the green room after 30 seconds or so and get back to our seats. TOOL was amazingly good, Danny is a phenomenal drummer and I’m proud to say I taught him everything he knows. Hehehe, not really, but we did have some long jams in KC that resembled some of their tunes, weird time signatures, etc… he was already well on his way to developing his style when I met him.

Afterwards we did try the after party which was more fun, a couple hundred people in another banquet-type room with an outside area nestled in the middle of downtown LA. We hung out with some of Terry Bozzio’s bandmates, Rufus Philpot and Alex, a guitarist from Austria, and chatted up Scott Kinsey, a keyboard player and composer extraordinaire. And finally Danny showed up, so I guess we partied with the band a little bit!