Tool are coming to New Zealand.
Announced today (September 16th), the US prog-metal icons will play Spark Arena on Saturday, November 22nd.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, September 22nd, while the Tool Army pre-sale commences on Wednesday, September 17th at 12pm NZST.
Tool’s brief Aotearoa visit will come ahead of their headline slot at Good Things 2025 in December. That will be their first Australian festival headline slot since Big Day Out 2011, as well as their first local shows in over five years.
Speaking to Rolling Stone AU/NZ, bassist Justin Chancellor reflected on both Tool’s return and his experience performing at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert in Birmingham last month. The show, ‘Back to the Beginning’, staged at Villa Park, turned out to be Osbourne’s swansong before his death two-and-a-half weeks later at 76.
“I can’t even explain it. There’s a little hard to get my head around,” Chancellor said. “I watched his whole set with my family out in the front when Sabbath and Ozzy played and I thought he was amazing. Obviously, he was really sick. You know, obviously he couldn’t stand up, but we all knew this. The band was incredible, but he was amazing too.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Chancellor recalled seeing Osbourne at the backstage party afterwards. “He came out, he was in a wheelchair but he was hanging out. There were so many people talking to him.”
The news of Ozzy’s passing hit hard. “I didn’t see it coming at all. I can’t even explain it. It’s a little hard to get my head around. It was very intense, because we’ve been part of (the final show). And it hit me pretty hard. It was very sad, but also very amazing.”
Chancellor added: “I did hear that he went off his pain medication to do the show in order to be able to hit the notes and to be more coherent. He went through quite a lot of pain to actually pull that off. It blew my mind. But it made sense when I saw the performance. It was just incredibly emotional.”
Tool’s own set included “Forty Six & 2″, “Ænema”, and a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Hand of Doom”.
Tool 2025 New Zealand Show
Ticket information available here
Saturday, November 22nd
Spark Arena, Auckland, NZ
