Life altering moments. Do you recognize them when they happen? Do you instantly say to yourself “self, this is a life altering moment…”
As I mentioned yesterday I feel like I’m in the midst of a transition. Scratch that, it’s not feel. I know I am. A life altering one. The cycle of it will likely be completed on Tuesday. This in between time is a bit numbing. It’s like being in an incubator wondering if the process is actually working while I wait for the ‘ding’ to announce it’s over and it’s time to be the new person.
Tim is the name of the friend who first mentioned to me that seeing Tool for him was a life altering moment. He described to me the feeling he got when he saw Maynard come on stage covered head to toe in blue body paint. In the moment of hearing the explanation I was thinking to myself “self, Maynard is obviously very committed to being the art.” It’s something I think about as I stew about ways to make my ideal performance goals a reality and what I want it to look and be like. Believe me my thoughts are different, I’m not sure how achievable they are, but I know at least one of them are radically different from a stage setup idea. Another that I’ve had has been done to a degree by Peter Gabriel. That won’t stop me though…
Puzzle pieces are the ideas. Once they’re all connected the picture comes into view. A couple of years ago I was told by my friend Brian that he had a connection to someone in the music industry who was very aware of who I was. Someone who had/has the power to make a massive difference in my career. Brian informed me that this person told him I had all the pieces of the puzzle to be huge, that I had not yet assembled them in the right order. The lunacy of that discussion is that it was held over my head with no inclination to connect me to this person. I suppose I was a little peeved that someone of that stature would make such a statement without an offer to point me in a direction.
Water under the bridge at this point.
Getting back to Tool. I have seen them live once in a fairly small theater in Hollywood. It was packed and I was there mainly because the drummer I was playing with at the time was a huge fan of the drummer of Tool. Put mildly, even though Tim had explained to me about Maynard, I hadn’t really explored Tool. The power of the band is Maynard and Danny. Danny is a tall guy in the neighborhood of about 6’5″ or 6’6″. It’s the smooth polish that Danny infuses in his drum grooves that provides the real hypnotic flow to everything I’ve heard Tool do. Sure the guitar stuff and the interesting bass riffs help. However, I’m thinking the real leader is Danny. I’m thinking it starts with his grooves and the rest of them are given such a solid rhythm palate to work with that it’s very easy to create those twisty turny riffs.
If you haven’t yet discovered them I think it’s high time you do. It could be life altering for you too. Unfortunately they haven’t discovered the world of iTunes. So visit your local CD store.
(** Disclaimer: If Tool decides to spear me, I’ll have to get a wedge to work the audio off the server. The post will remain to show my limbo of defining moments. **)