Some more notes that i remembered this morning, and some summary thoughts on the Chicago Clinic;

-When asked what song *that we've heard* took the longest to write, at first Justin answered "Third Eye", but then after a quick exchange with Adam he replaced that with Wings(1&2). Adam commented further that sometimes one of them might have a riff that they really love but it's just not working the context of any arrangement. It might be several years later when someone else comes in with another and they have some eureka moment when suddenly that old riff the other guy had stashed away suddenly works. He then said (if i recall correctly) "This time there's like seven of those." Which I assumed meant tracks on the new album; roughly insinuating that that type of occurrence happened a lot during this writing phase.

-for anyone else attending, sitting the the front row could really pay off big time (assuming what im about to say sounds appealing). During one of the Q&A's, a couple guys in the front row ahead of me asked Adam's guitar tech if they could hold Adam's guitar and he agreed. He hoisted Adam's silverburst over the divider and the guy even got to try his hand a few licks. Others nearby reached out quickly just to grab it briefly. This lasted about a minute before the guys in the front row graciously offered the guitar back to Adam's tech. -- Also, just before they started performing, Adam walked up to the railing, leaned over and said to everyone in the section in front of him, "Look guys, I just want to say I'm sorry, but...", he turned back and pointed toward his amps then faced the crowd again and said, "... It's going to be brutal". To that point, it was probably the loudest performance I've ever heard at the Vic, but still comfortable.

-The first couple songs, the crowd sang along - which, for any other tool "concert" that can get annoying in a hurry; Here, it was really neat. Justin loved it. He even made a point to encourage it from the crowd because it's not an experience they often get to feel that intimate connection to the crowd.

-A guy the crowd who traveled from Bangladesh asked if Tool would ever consider touring in that part of the world. Justin mostly fielded that question saying that until they're touring to support the new record, they'll be staying "close to home". But ultimately answered with the equivalent of 'anything's possible'.

-Regarding the VIP merch packages that will be send out; Adam said toward the end that the intent was to get those out before the clinic tour started. He seemed a little upset that they weren't able to get those out in time, but stated that the items (one in particular being a pin) were meant to be symbolic of the shared experience and he hoped that that sentiment would still be received. At first I kind of felt this thought of, "Alright, it's just a pin and some merch. No need to be upset about it." But this and a couple other comments Adam made during the clinic made it clear; He's really emotionally invested in everything Tool does, even to this day. It's funny; I mention this because whenever Adam was performing, he looked as he always does... He's not very animated, just stiff and deliberate in his motions. Justin practically dances the whole time. Meanwhile, I caught Adam rifling through a riff during The Grudge with ease while leaning over his rig to have a quick conversation with his guitar tech. Things like that both made me appreciate Adam's skill to have all of that chaos locked down to muscle memory - but also made me wonder if his heart was really in it... But the way he talks about the band; It definitely is. He loves this band. He loves what they are doing.

-The Opiate Video: I don't know if this was already cleared up before; but Adam confirmed it. This is the video that Adam/Tool gave full creative license to Dominic Hailstone to do whatever he wanted with the video. Adam said that the best part about it was seeing the video for the first time just like we were about to... The video visually/stylistically is definitely different, but certainly within the Tool universe. There's lots of symbolism and visual metaphor, but notably a larger color palette. A lot more pinks and purples that then standard blue/grey/black/white scheme that nearly every Tool video features.

Highlight for spoilers... This is as much as I can pull from memory; The video features a dark barren landscape dotted with what appeared to be something like tombstones. Floating above the barren landscape was a luminescent ball of red/pink gas that appeared to be symbolic of some sort of God figure. When the music really kicks in with "Deaf and Blind and Dumb and.." a creature bursts out of this black soupy mud and starts flopping about on the ground. As the song progresses we watch this creature violently morph and evolve into a grotesque walking creature. Eventually it forms a hand with something like 7 fingers then protrudes an appendage that reaches up toward the bright, smokey, God ball... the point when it makes contact is when the new extended part of the song kicks it. At this point the video gets very colorful and trippy. I got lost in it by that point. When I caught myself doing that, I thought; "Well that's a good thing... it's been a while since I felt that way about Tool." Moments before the extension wraps up, the video becomes this soupy and bright mix of pinks and purples where you can distinctly see two faces converge and kiss. This is the last significant image I could really make out (no pun intended) before they stopped the video. Adam bluntly/jokingly stated, "We thought we'd save the 3rd act for you for when we release it... obviously... we'd still like to make some more money off you guys." It seemed clear to me that the creature in the video was eventually going to morph into the 6 armed priest from the Opiate cover art.
-end spoilers

Summary thoughts: By and large, I felt like this was an enjoyable experience. I sat 10 feet from Adam and when they played Eulogy in particular... well let's just say I *thought* I knew how to play that song. The meet and mingle was just Danny and Justin, which was fine, I figured this was because Adam said he was sick. It was as swimming stated, mostly a just a quick "hi, nice to meet you" take a picture and move along, type thing. Which was a little awkward... It's not something I really felt like a needed to do, but I figured I might as well given the amount of money I spent. I struggled to think up something to say when it was my turn, but finally settled on simply thanking them for nearly 20 years ago, "forcing me out of my stubborn dismissal of King Crimson". They both laughed, Danny said "I love those guys" and Justin leaned in and asked me, "So what's the secret?". I said, I wasn't quite sure but I experienced a lot of different music beyond that point. At that point I posed for my picture, thanked them both and said I was looking forward to the new album. I felt like that went as well as it could, but it still felt awkward. Barely even real. I'm glad I did it... but I certainly didn't *need* to. If I went to another one of these, I don't think I'd do it again... but it made me wonder why they couldn't have broken up the ticket packages into 2 separate categories. Maybe $250/500 where the more expensive included the signed, commemorative ticket and the meet and "mingle". I say this mostly because this made existing the venue take really(!) long time for some people that may have not even been interested.

Anyways; I left feeling satisfied. It was a little unhinged at times because they didn't want the experience to feel structured. They wanted the audience to guide the experience, and as I stated earlier, I think there was a disparity amongst the attendees as to what that experience should be.