Tool are currently on tour in the U.S. and the road has a habit of testing one's ability to keep themselves entertained during swaths of downtime. For Maynard James Keenan, however, that spilled over to the stage at a recent gig, where he was filmed playing the popular game Jenga behind Danny Carey's drum kit mid-song. And Carey unwittingly gave his singer a surprise too.
With nightly sets regularly eclipsing the two-hour mark and with elongated instrumental passages present in many songs, Keenan has plenty of time to do... well... whatever he damn well feels like it. The swirling, hypnotic visual effects of Tool's live production are more than enough to keep fans engaged throughout these extended vocal-less bits, which freed up Keenan to test his patience and skill in a one-man game of Jenga.
The game, which was invented in 1983 by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott, challenges players (traditionally two or more) to make decisions on many levels — pull a wooden block that will not collapse the tower while also strategically selecting a block that will create more difficulty for successive players to complete the objective when it is their turn.
Any sudden movement or an unsteady hand could result in a pile of wooden blocks on the floor and a loss for the individual who pulled the ill-fated piece.
Typically, players don't smash a gong with a drum mallet when another player is trying to pull a block, but Carey was either completely unaware of Keenan's antics taking place directly behind him or just did not care, as his focus was on maintaining world-class time-keeping onstage.
In the video clip below, which was shared on Keenan's Instagram page, the singer is seen crouched behind the drum kit, pondering which piece to pull next. Fans were quick to quip, "I know the pieces fit," in the comments section in reference to the famous lyric from the Lateralus song "Schism."
After being startled by the gong, Keenan screamed back at Carey, "What the fuck! What's wrong with you?!" And on Instagram, he captioned the video, "Damn, you son of a bitch@ Tryn [sic] ta [sic] get Jenga back here, ffs [for fuck's sake]."
An onstage game of Jenga wasn't the only surprising thing on Tool's run so far. The group recently made headlines for an $810 Fear Inoculum vinyl box set that was being sold on tour, but the price tag was actually $750 before taxes and fees. Since, a worldwide release of this box set has been set for April 8 and, arriving earlier than that is the March 1 release of "Opiate2," a reimagined version of the title track to Tool's 1992 EP. A 15-minute short film companion will also be released on March 18.
Learn more about both releases here and see Tool's remaining U.S. and upcoming European tour dates at this location.
Watch Maynard James Keenan Plays Jenga Onstage at Tool Show
