First Tool 2014 Tour Dates Revealed on West Coast

Tool have just announced a string of US shows for 2014.

The seven-show run, which features five US shows, and two stops in Mexico, will be Tool’s first foray into North America since a hefty tour in early 2012. The band played live in 2013, but only toured in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

The mini trek kicks off on March 4th in Spokane, Washington, and will see the prog metal legends make stops in Portland, Eugene, Oregon, Reno, San Francisco and Mexico City, before wrapping up on March 21st in Veracruz, Mexico. Obviously, hopes are high and rumors are rife that this series of dates marks the possibility of an extension, or shows elsewhere across the globe.

In the meantime, Tool are reportedly working on new material, with band frontman Maynard James Keenan (what a name, amiright?) calling the writing process ‘tedious’ while he waits other band members to compose the tracks (what a lazy guy, amiright?)

“I don’t write the music. They write the music,” he told Rolling Stone in November 2013. “I wait for them to bring music to me. They tend to go back over and over stuff. It’s a long process. For a person like me, it can be a very tedious process. In some ways, they are bigger perfectionists. But you can only help support their talent so long. They don’t have to go through it 700 times. They can trust that first thought. But that’s their process, so you gotta let them do it.” And is that process happening? “I couldn’t tell you.”

The new album would be the band’s first new material since 2006’s 10,000 Days, which topped the Billboard 200 with 564,000 copies sold in its first week. Drummer Danny Carey told Loudwire last July that a new Tool record would “most likely” come in “early 2014.”