TOOL Members Hint At Playing New Material On Upcoming Dates

According to The Pulse Of Radio, TOOL singer Maynard James Keenan has apparently hinted that fans may hear some new music on the band's upcoming tour dates. Keenan posted a meme on Twitter of the band, with a thought bubble from him that read, "Feeling cute. Might play some new material on this upcoming tour. I don't know."

The meme was accompanied by the hashtags "#riotgearretired" and "#whileyouwerewhiningwewereworking." TOOL's live shows will get under way this coming Sunday (May 5) when the band appears at Welcome To Rockville in Jacksonville, Florida, followed by a string of summer U.S. and European festival slots.

Meanwhile, guitarist Adam Jones posted a clip of himself on Instagram "getting ready for Sunday" by playing what seems to be a new riff. A section of it sounded similar to a portion of "Descending", an unreleased song that the band has included in its live sets over the past few years.

Drummer Danny Carey told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that the band usually figures out how to play its new songs live after recording them. "We've never been fortunate enough to perform our material live before we recorded it, so some of the songs we almost actually had to learn how to play live, you know, before we went out, and that was interesting," he said. "It always is, though. We've kind of stuck to the similar processes along the way, so we're used to it."

There's still no official word exactly when the long-awaited follow-up to 2006's "10,000 Days" will arrive, but Keenan said in February, "Best ballpark guess — release date somewhere between mid-May and mid-July. More focused updates to follow as we progress."