Kyle Kuehheman was psyched for Tool's headlining appearance at the short-lived River's Edge Festival on Harriet Island in 2012. / Star Tribune file (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
No new album yet, but Tool returning to Xcel Center anyway June 9
The arty metal gods will make one of their only 15 tour stops in St. Paul, where they last played to 25,000 fans outside.
March 20, 2017 at 5:10PM
Last seen in St. Paul playing to 25,000 fans and a cloud of funny-smelling smoke on Harriet Island in 2012, prog-metal gods Tool will return indoors to Xcel Energy Center on June 9 as one of their only 15 tour dates this year. Tickets go on sale Friday at 11 a.m. for $75 and $95 via Ticketmaster and the arena box office.
As is well-known by their legion of cultish fans, Tool hasn't issued an album since 2006's epic "10,000 Days," and it has only performed sporadically in the decade since then. The band is purportedly done with a new record and could be playing new songs this summer, but the release of the album got tied up in a series of complex legal affairs related to an insurance company and a visual artist who worked with the band.
Being hard-to-get has only increased demand for Tool. The group's concerts have turned into Deadhead-type affairs with fans traveling all over for the increasingly rare chance to catch the quartet in concert, where it typically offers a dazzling visual show rife with eerie video backdrops and Pink Floydian lighting.
No openers have been announced for the June 9 show or the band's other tour dates, which could mean an extra-long Tool set. The tour kicks off two weeks before St. Paul in Fairfax, Va.
Here's a pretty decent fan video of the notoriously camera-shy band's last appearance in town at the River's Edge Festival on Harriet Island in 2012.
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