Know Your Neighbor: 'Opiate' Tribute Band Lives for Heavy Metal

Tribute bands are often stigmatized for their impersonations of the original. It’s an ambiguous attitude for a society that simulates and mass-produces cultural icons of all colors and creeds for wide-spread consumption. Some might hang a Van Gogh reproduction in their living room, but scoff at the idea of visiting their local bar to watch a tribute band perform live. A good tribute band is more than just a machine-made copy. It’s a homage to the various rock gods performed by their respective disciples, a ceremony of sorts.

The Tool tribute band Opiate is a case in point. The four members hail from Bristol and Warren. They take their music and stagecraft very seriously. Vocalist Rick Kinsella played guitar for twenty years before turning to vocals. He’s now studying under Vaughn Bryner in order to perfect the deep tones of Tool lead singer Maynard James Keen.

Bassist Dan da Silva grew up in Bristol amongst a large, musically inclined Portuguese family. His father played folk music on mandolin and encouraged Dan to take up the accordion at age six. At the age of 10, he placed third in a national competition. Soon after, Dan began playing piano and at age 16 he picked up a bass to kill some time while members of his old band were tuning up. Some 22 years later, he hasn’t put one down since.

Warren resident Tony Guimelli studied guitar at Berklee under Shane Manzi. He and his wife Stephanie Zielenski also produce the band’s visual effects that are projected onto three different onstage screens. Guimelli is a scholar of rock and metal who quotes Warhol and Marx while discussing the artistic attributes of a Tool performance.

At age 25, drummer Rob Coyne is the youngest member of Opiate by twelve years, but plays with the passion and precise technicality of a veteran. He grew up in Warren and has been playing drums since he was nine under the tutelage of George Correia.

Kinsella and da Silva are childhood friends who operated a sidewalk Kool-Aid stand every summer. They would occasionally bump into Guimelli at the battle of the bands where the nuns literally pulled the plug on da Silva’s performance of the Misfits song “One Last Caress.”

Two years ago, they formed the cover band Bailout Plan along with Coyne. They performed a wide range of songs from Michael Jackson to 311. Members of the audience seemed particularly receptive to their Tool performances. The band also felt the added energy in themselves while playing Tool and thus made the permanent switch. Mostly, they were fans of the music and ideas that Tool manufacture in their songs, ideas such as self-realization and empowerment.

Tool is a progressive metal band with a complicated sound and stage presence. The members of Opiate were more than up for the challenge of not only perfecting that sound and stage presence, but embodying the Tool philosophy of limiting appearances as not to overplay or overproduce their art. Tool has been described as a thinking man’s metal band and the members of Opiate have gone to great lengths to honor that by making sure that each performance provides the audience with an audio/visual experience that is true to the original.

They accomplish this by videotaping each performance in order to study and improve upon it. They do so in da Silva’s bodega, which he jokingly translates from Portuguese as “big-ass garage.” The bodega is equipped with a kitchen, foosball table, and video equipment for reviewing shows. People who visit after a gig are sometimes surprised to find Opiate doing their homework instead of partying.

Tool singer Maynard James Keen does not perform front and center. He sings the in the shadows of the stage as to let the music and onscreen visualizations entertain and enlighten the viewer. Opium performances are the same. The band plays off to the side, enshrouded in the shadows of stage lights and monitors flashing the psychedelic imagery of artists Chet Zar and Alex Gray. It is a truly visceral experience. Opiate loves and respects what they do and it shows in their performance.

Opiate is playing this Saturday night at along with People of the Sun: A Rage Against the Machine tribute band. They are also playing next weekend, Saturday, March 4, at Mardis Gras in Cranston. Adhering to Tool’s practice of keeping a low profile, it’s the first time Opiate has played back to back weekends. Make sure to check them out before they take another month-long hiatus.