For Tool‘s upcoming tour, Maynard James Keenan and company picked the alternative band Blonde Redhead to open for them. Anyone who’s heard Blonde Redhead can tell you they don’t sound much like Tool — which, for Keenan, is exactly the point.
“The approach or criteria I usually take when it’s my turn to choose an opener, is Diversity,” Keenan writes in an Instagram post. “No point in choosing something similar to us. Most are only here for the headliner anyway. But for those with open hearts and minds, I choose something I feel is compelling in its own way.”
In picking Blonde Redhead, Keenan was drawn to their “incredible melodies, complex and subtle rhythms, and non-traditional arrangements.”
“Nothing like [Tool],” he writes. “And Not meant to be. Obviously. If it’s not your thing, don’t worry. What you came to hear will soon follow. But if any of what you hear resonates, [Blonde Redhead] have a deep catalog for you to get lost in for years to come.”
Even if you don’t think you’ve ever heard Blonde Redhead, you may recognize their song “For the Damaged Coda,” aka the Evil Morty theme from Rick and Morty.
Tool’s tour begins Monday, January 10, in Eugene, Oregon.
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