Tom Waits Part 2 - The Show

On to the show! I’ve been rolling a lot of thoughts around my head trying to come up with a recap worthy of this event. For me it was a singular experience that I’m not sure I’m skilled enough to express in words. I’m giving it a shot though.

Someone at work asked me what kind of music Tom Waits performs. I couldn’t really give him a definitive answer. There are elements of blues, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, sea shanties, and rock. And I don’t know what to call it, but sometimes his songs sound like the band is playing instruments made of the things you find in a junkyard. You know, like Fat Albert. Tom has evolved over his career to become a true original. And I think there is a connection to some of the Beat poets and writers in his lyrics, he sings about the kind of down-on-their-luck characters and oddballs that they wrote about.

When we entered the theatre they weren’t letting anyone in to the seating area, just letting people mill around in the lobby. It got pretty crowded in there and you couldn’t leave and re-enter, so we milled. It was an interesting crowd which skewed toward the older end. There was a sense of anticipation in the air created by everyone’s expectations of what they were about to see. One of my friends was dead-set on procuring some “merch” as he called it, and I wanted to get a poster myself. Turns out there was no merch to be had. We had seen a couple of people with posters in hand before we entered the theatre, but they turned out to be the posters from the theatre windows.

And I am not going to call this a concert. This was a “show” in every sense of the word. Tom is quite the showman, striking crazy poses, dancing, cracking jokes between songs. His voice is a thing of wonder to behold (behear?). When he started talking after the first song, it was kind of hard to hear him and it made me think that his voice could go. It seemed to get stronger as he went along though. The presentation was fairly minimal but it perfectly suited the performance. There was a very simple stage backed by two enormous white curtains, and there were lights on the stage floor that cast elongated shadows of Tom and the band up on the curtains throughout the performance. The curtain was also back-lit, so when Tom made his entrance by striking a scarecrow pose everyone went nuts.

In the middle of the show a piano was brought onstage, and Tom performed a few songs with only bass accompaniment. The lights from the stage cast a really neat image of the piano keys and Tom’s hands onto the backing curtain. At the end of this segment Tom told the piano to “Lie down, lie down. Lie down, piano” as it was carted off the stage.

For me some of the highlights were An Invitation To The Blues, Shore Leave, Goin’ Out West, Dead and Lovely, and The House Where Nobody Lives. Circus took me by surprise. It is a spoken word song from his latest album, Real Gone. I never really paid much attention to the recorded version, I always just thought it an inferior echo of Frank’s Wild Years or What’s He Building In There, but in person it was transformed by that amazing voice. We were listening to a master storyteller. He came back again and again to the line “Leave the Bum”, which on the record is a line of no particular importance - hard to hear, even. The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me was amazing too. I’ll hear that song with new ears from now on. Tom pulled out a giant bullhorn for the song 219, which was pretty cool. I don’t think he was getting the sound he wanted though because he ended the song by cupping his hands in front of the mic, which sounded a little better than the bullhorn in my opinion. I’ve seen lot of people on the internet complaining about the guitarist, but I thought he sounded great.

There was only one encore, and at first I was disappointed, but I realized we got our money’s worth as the show was nearly 2 and a half hours long! The first song of the encore was Day After Tomorrow. It was just Tom and an acoustic guitar, and it was goosebump-worthy. Another one I’ll never hear the same way again.

I know Tom can be an acquired taste, but if you ever get the chance to go to one of his shows, do it. Don’t even think about it. Just go.

The Setlist
Singapore
Make it Rain
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
Ain't Going to the Well
Yesterday is Here
God's Away on Business
'Til the Money Runs Out
219 (My Baby's Leaving on the)
Dead and Lovely
Tango Till They're Sore
House Where Nobody Lives
The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
Invitation to the Blues
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Heart Attack and Vine
Shake It
It Rains on Me
Who's Been Talkin'
Circus
Trampled Rose
Get Behind the Mule
Murder in the Red Barn
Goin’ Out West
Encore
Day After Tomorrow
Sins of the Father