so I got an email from Aaron this morning about the show (Volto! featuring Danny Carey on drums) he and Matt went to last night. I was invited, but the show didn’t start till 9:30 so I knew I’d be dead tired by the time it was over…

anyway…without further jealous blabbering on my part here you go:

email from Aaron to Andrew Friday January 21st 2005:

no estes triste senor!

Alright dude, first of all, the show was fantastic. the sound was great, it
was like them playing in the living room and sound levels were perfect, such
an intimate setting. As the band is walking up to play (btw, there is no
stage, it’s all floor level) they are saying what’s up to all their friends
walking through the door. it was like a gig in someone’s back yard. they did
some original stuff and played a few of rock/blues covers. Very interesting
and musically and technically amazing. Danny can do everything. Every
style, he was doing blues, jazz, fusion jazz, rock, they did it all. They
did Fire from Jimi Hendrix and Texas Flood from Stevie Ray Vaughn. the
guitarist absolutely shreds, I could not believe how amazing he was. matt
and I were actually impressed by him more than anyone. Wow. Just wow. Ok,
so after the show I went up to Danny and patted him on the back and said
great show, he was like thanks man, we shook hands, i told him how much i
appreciated it. he was very cool, down to earth and a chatterbox, he was
talking to everyone, so my whole image of him was shattered, I thought he
was gonna be this serious, brooding guy. He was high smiling, high-fiving,
giving ladies kisses, so that’s when I knew I could go in for the kill. I
went to take a leak then I came back to talk to him because everyone was
just chillin talking with him at the bar, we were clinking beer bottles with
the band, there was a small group of people just chatting with him, I guess
acquaintances and friends of the band, mailing list people, etc. I then
decided to ask for an autograph and he was like “sure man, let me get my own
pen.” he wanted to make sure that he signed with a sharpie for whatever
reason. So it was just myself and this one other guy and DC and we started
talking about volto! and the projects he’s working on, and then I couldn’t
help myself but ask him about tool, i prefaced it with “you must be asked
this a million times.. but..”. I asked him about tool’s future and he told
me “yeah, man we’ve got like at least 2-3 more albums to put out.” I asked
him about the DVD and he said that “it’s definitely gonna happen, there’s
just some issues with the company who’s putting it together and conflicts
with rights to video concert footage, etc.” it should be out before the end
of the year for sure. then I was thinking sweet, so then i just confirmed
with “so the DVD is definitely happening?” he was like “for sure man”. so i
asked if he could talk about the TOOL rumors of a coachella showing. this
is where i got an interesting response. He didn’t say no, but he didn’t say
yes. He said “Maybe” I told him about a NIN TOOL double bill and he said,
I dont know maybe. that doesn’t mean NO. because i think if it were a NO
he might just say no, and what does he have to benefit by lying about an
appearance. i figure if they’re not gonna play it, why would they care
about misleading people into thinking they would play it. So Matt figured
there was probably a contractual obligation thing where they couldn’t say
exactly yes so they have to say maybe, because that might be simpler for the
record company or whatever or the coachella promotional people seeing as
there is no confirmed list yet. you have to go the next one so you can meet
and chat with DC he’s cool people. He had a cool Fishbone t-shirt with the
sleeves cutoff, playing in the usual KU shorts. anyway, i’m just hyped cuz
i got to meet one of my favorite drummers and actually talk to him in that
kind of a setting for a little while. your ass better be there next time, i
dont care how tired you are. you don’t get many opportunities like this 😉
they’ll be at “la ve lee” next month. later player.

—————-
He is probably right about not lying about the Coachella. When I met Abe Cunningham years ago I asked him if they would do Ozzfest again (as there were rumors that they would). He said “No, we hated that.” The Deftones were never on the bill for ozzfest again.

The best live shows I’ve ever seen (considering stage presence, lighting, sound levels, everything) go like this: #1 Nine Inch Nails #2 TOOL #3 Pantera

Now obviously we aren’t going to get a triple bill since Dimebag is gone, but if you put the first two together, I’m there!