quite possibly...

[(R)]

...the best live version of a song ever recorded.
every time I hear it, I can just feel myself getting into the fetal position and just weeping.
it has the same warmth and openness of Eon Blue Apocalypse (which very much sounds similar) and with M's vocals... well i can do nothing more but just stare off and become obsorbed in the melody.
and after that it is still able to capture the energy of a tool performance, which i never did see, location being a limitation.

[bruce]

Having listened to this performance several times, i still get shivers down my spine everytime i hear it,. It's a wonderful piece of music and stirs so many memories.

[Tokes]

I wish they had played it when I saw them in concert... I love the change in the bass-line at 11:15... it hits the lower notes instead of keeping the same pattern and it just moves me every time

[Shadow_Master]

Best song released by Tool yet. While I thought the original was very good, this one runs the entire spectrum of emotions that one goes through when they're being abused by someone who "loves" them. It's a bit more realistic...more vulnerable. It's beautiful...in the beginning, at the part, "who am I to judge or strike you down" when Justin is playing the high notes w/ that choral-sounding effect, and at "you still love me" up to the tabla solo....the part where Adam is losing his mind at 10:35....Maynard's sustained note on "one must persuade you another way"...it all puts a chill in my spine. Amazing stuff.

[nikstar]

I saw them play this live last year in Toronto at the ACC. Good god. Chilling. A collective Toolgasm was surely had by all when Maynard sang "I must persuade you another wayyyy..." That's something I never expected to see performed live. I can't believe how emotionally enthralling this version of the song is. *shivers*

[Ahnijson_films]

Originally posted by Shadow_Master
Maynard's sustained note on "one must persuade you another way"...it all puts a chill in my spine. Amazing stuff. /

I have to agree there is nothing like that moment in the world. Nothing. I have yet to find any artistic medium that has moved me and inspired me so much in my life, whether it be film, sculpture, music, whatever, as that moment in that song. It's just like, the culmination of everything I've ever known. Not to make this perverse or anything, but truly, I see it as completely orgasmic... not so much sexually as emotionally and metaphysically orgasmic. It is the culmination of every hope and desire and dream and fear and hatred and love and self-abasement and need and inspiration in my life. It's just... arg. How to explain how it makes me feel. It's just, in that moment, I know exactly how he feels. Not that I am in any way attempting to interpret the meaning of the song, I leave that for James's own mind, but I just know that feeling when all you can do is stop and let go. And that's what he does, he just lets go. And you know that everything he has inside of him at the moment, every thought and feeling he has just stops and is released, and for a moment in time, there is peace. I have seen Pushit live, during the Lateralus tour (unfortunately sans Aloke Dutta), and all I could do is weep. For the peace and freedom and love it filled me with, and will always fill me with. The only thing I can compare that moment to, would be falling in love. That moment, when you suddenly stop and go... wait a minute, I'm in love. Holy shit... I'm in love. That moment in the universe that happens so rarely, that is what that moment in the song reminds me of. Only that can compare.

Please excuse my ranting, I'm just so glad other feel strongly about what I feel is one of the most poignant moments in TooLs history.

[Divine_left]

Originally posted by Ahnijson_films
/
Not to make this perverse or anything, but truly, I see it as completely orgasmic... not so much sexually as emotionally and metaphysically orgasmic.

I agree...if sex could be summed up in musical terms, it would sound exactly like this song. So beautiful, yet so powerful at the same time. I also think the note Maynard holds at the end of "I must persuade you another way" is possibly the most amazing musical note ever achieved.

Thank you Tool, for playing this song!

[dr_oder]

Hearing this live version of Pushit on tour in 1989 before it was released on CD had me walking on clouds for weeks. Imagine, that AND No Quarter in the same night under the stars at Red Rocks and then getting them both on CD two years later!

[Shadowfax]

...I totally agree, nothing beats that one line and just the whole song put together the way it was. I liked Pushit a lot before hearing the Salival version, but after hearing the live one, I don't believe I've listened to the studio one since...The song is just simply amazing, sometimes I will even go to my room, lie on the floor, shut the lights, close my eyes, and just listen to the song for hours...especially when I'm feeling bad...it makes me feel so much better, and calmer

[Persuasion]

This version is so much deeper than the original...

Meaning, the original, to me anyway, almost had this hsiny plastic coating that kept me from disappearing into it the way that I do with so many other Tool songs..(for example, Reflection, and Lateralus)
But this version is so deep and tremulous and achingly beautiful...the sensations of his yearning and resentment become MY sensations, and with the combination of emotional and sensory depth I completely "lose myself between the sounds"

It's like the womb. Or a dark silent lake that ripples with the sound of the guitar riffs (painful)

[Killer Of God]

Originally posted by Tokes
I wish they had played it when I saw them in concert...

Twice i saw them play this version. Once on the aenima tour and once on the first half of the lateralus tour. The first time on the aenima tour i had no idea what song they were playing until they went into the original album parts. It was really trippy to me when i finally realized what they were playing. It was like i new the lyrics for some reason but i couldnt put my finger on the song until "I Feel Alive When You Touch Me."

[chafro]

it is the best song i have ever heard live in my life, theres so much emotion in it, and its so soothing. i havent ever heard a live song that comes close to this caliber of emotion

[normz]

I have not yet had the opportunity to hear this song live but all you who have I envy you. It sounds fantastic enough cranked up with all the lights out but live......... I can't imagine it, there would be no words to describe it. I must say ti is by far the most amazing song of all tool's repetoir. Everything form the intro right until the last note is pure perfection. Artistically it lacks nothing it is a masterpiece there is simply no other way to describe it.

spiral out..........

[Latterlon]

I agree that this is their best work put out on a CD. I am eagerly awaiting the live DVD to relive the Lateralus tour, especially D/R and Triad.

[Orion]

I remeber when I first saw them play this song live...It was September 18th 2001. It was just before I began to truely "listen" to TOOL. When I heard the song on Salival I fell into a trance, the combination of Adam's melody and Maynard's Harmony created the perfect tone, so many emotions can be described with this song. I must say that the concert (my first encounter with TOOL live) popped this spirtual cherry of mine and I have never felt anything else like it. It has been said before, It's just like falling in love.

Orion

[54CymruBeats]

Originally posted by dr_oder
Hearing this live version of Pushit on tour in 1989 before it was released on CD had me walking on clouds for weeks. Imagine, that AND No Quarter in the same night under the stars at Red Rocks and then getting them both on CD two years later!

Oh yes Dr., I can relate. The '89 Tool tour was a great one indeed.

P.S. this version of Pushit is my all time favorite Tool song.