Opiate brings its Tool tribute back to the Webster Underground on Nov. 28

New England's long-running Tool tribute returns to the Webster's smaller room the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Just before a Tool song starts there's a pause, a long patient build where nobody wants to be the one talking. Hartford gets another night of that on Saturday, Nov. 28, when Opiate, a tribute to Tool, plays the Webster Underground. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are on sale now through the Webster's own site.

The date was announced Oct. 21, and it's a good one: the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when half of Greater Hartford is home for the long weekend and looking for a reason to get out of the house after three days of leftovers.

Opiate isn't a new act still working out the kinks. The band's own site says it formed in 2010 and has become a staple of the New England live-music scene since. The lineup listed there is Rob Coyne, Johnny Buck, Dave Leonard and Rick Kinsella. The name will mean something to the faithful: "Opiate" is the title track of Tool's 1992 EP, a song Tool brought back in a re-recorded 2022 version.

Hartford has seen them before, and recently. Opiate played the same room on March 21 of this year, on a double bill with Alice, a tribute to Alice in Chains. That makes November a return booking rather than a first look, and venues don't usually rebook an act in the same room within the year unless the first night went well.

Tool's music asks a lot of the people playing it, and a lot of the room.

That's the case for a tribute like this in the first place. Tool's songs are built on odd meters, long builds and a rhythm section that has to stay locked in for minutes at a stretch. A band can't fake its way through that, and the songs land differently in a room full of people than they do in headphones. A dedicated tribute that has been at it for more than 15 years gives fans that experience without waiting on the real thing's tour schedule.

The room matters too. The Webster Underground is the smaller space attached to the Webster Theater, the one that often runs as a second stage on nights when the main hall is busy. It's closer and more compact than the theater upstairs, which suits a band whose whole job is recreating density and volume. You'll be near enough to watch the drummer work through the parts everyone air-drums in the car.

A few practical notes. Eight o'clock is the posted show time, so plan to arrive early if you want a spot near the front. Buy tickets through the Webster's own site rather than a reseller. And with the March show still fresh in local memory, expect the regulars to turn up early.

For a lot of people, a night like this is the closest they'll get to hearing these songs played loud with a crowd singing every word back. On Saturday night of a holiday weekend, that's a good way to work off the stuffing.

Sources: OPIATE TOOL TRIBUTE - The Webster Underground (venue event page) (thewebsterct.com); The Webster - Events (thewebsterct.com); TOOL Tribute: Opiate (band site) (tooltributeopiate.bandzoogle.com); Opiate Tool Tribute - Webster Theater Underground, Mar 21, 2026 (AXS) (axs.com); Webster Theater - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Opiate (song) - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Tool streams 2022 version of 1992 track Opiate (Metal Injection) (metalinjection.net); JamBase listing (jambase.com)