Watch Tool’s Danny Carey + Justin Chancellor Play a Bass-and-Drums-Only ‘Ænema’
Tool’s Justin Chancellor and Danny Carey performed an instrumental version of the band’s classic “Ænema” — just bass and drums, without the guitar and vocals of bandmates Adam Jones and Maynard James Keenan, respectively — for Berklee College of Music students in 2019.
The intimate performance occurred in November of that year, around two months after the band had released Fear Inoculum, their first studio album in 13 years. Hosted by the school’s Steven Bailey, chair of the college’s bass department, the once-in-a-lifetime drum and bass showcase gave the music students an experience they probably won’t forget any time soon.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
The complete footage of the instrumental Tool “Ænema” performance was just recently uploaded to YouTube, but it was first shared to Instagram in 2019 by bassist Mark Donohue on a page dedicated to the English instrument manufacturer Wal Basses. (The song, of course, comes from Tool’s 1996 album, Ænima.)
“Hot off the presses!” The Wal Bass Collective shared on social media at the time, as Metal Hammer reported. “Just now at a clinic @berkleecollege. #JustinChancellor and #DannyCarey getting ready to jam a few #Toolband tunes.”
More recently, Keenan released a short film about springtime called An Easter Story. In it, the Tool singer waxes philosophic about the changing of the seasons, positing the metamorphosis as a “metaphor for the lifetime of a person. The waxing, thin sliver of light as their awakening consciousness and the formation of self, and the waning light as our elder years.”
Fear Inoculum was the band’s first full-length effort in 13 years, following 2006’s 10,000 Days. Since then, all Tool members except Keenan collaborated on a seven-minute song to commemorate Jones’ Gibson signature model guitar, while Keenan issued a new album with Puscifer.