Sober - Tales from the Darkside

“Sober – Tales from the Darkside” is Tool’s formal 1994 release of Italian Bootlegging company Kiss The Stone’s “Tales From The Darkside”, an unofficial live bootleg of the same year.

It features an identical tracklist, the release being intended as a retaliation to the extortionist’s unauthorized release (as was proper Tool fashion at the time). The formal compilation, although unofficial, was released as the Dutch version of the single, featuring eight live recordings of previously-released tracks by Tool, two of which were from their debut 1992 EP, Opiate, the other six being from their first studio album, Undertow, which was released in 1993.

The in-lay, printed in England, features imagery from the official Sober music video, as well as art by American visual artist Cam De Leon also seen on the disc. Although the in-lay simply states that tracks two to nine were “recorded live somewhere”, it has been confirmed that tracks two to seven were recorded live at Lollapalooza 1993 in Irwindale, California on August sixth. Tracks eight and nine were recorded later that month at Lowland Paradise Festival 1993, Dronten, Flevoland in the Netherlands on the twenty-ninth of August.