What I miss you won't believe -- shoveling snow and raking leaves

So…I went to a bunch of concerts earlier this year and I never wrote about them. Scott wrote about some as did Mike. Just to do a quick recap:

Ray Davies, March 25, 2006 (Variety Playhouse) – Couldn’t have been better. Well, I guess all of the Kinks could have been alive and it could have been 1970 for just one night, but other than that my expectations were exceeded.

The Minus 5 - March 31, 2006 (Smith's Olde Bar) – A great show made even better by the fact that I now know to refer to Mike Mills as Mills-y and meeting that guy in the crowd that looked like Dwight from The Office who kept screaming “Don’t Be Denied”.

The Minus 5 (w/special guest R.E.M. v1.0) - April 1, 2006 (Georgia Theatre) – Best.Show.Ever. Somehow seeing a band two nights in a row wasn’t a let down. There was something like 14 encores and a band called R.E.M. appeared in the first one. I don’t want to sound like R.E.M. fanboy but I was giddy, on the inside mainly, the entire night as all 4 members of R.E.M. started showing up and standing about 10 feet behind us. The legend of Bill Berry continues to grow after this night and one day it could reach Braskyesque proportions.

They Might Be Giants - May 3, 2006 (Variety Playhouse) – I’ve seen them before and this show paled in comparison to the first time. Its was still a good show though. John & John are brilliant entertainers. They never seem to have a down night (I’ve heard countless live shows). Also, the opening act was really fun. Ukulele and glockenspiel have never sounded so fine. Thanks, Michael Leviton.

And now last week I saw Tom Waits. I love the guy. He is responsible for my second favorite song of all time and possibly a few others high on the list but that’s a list I’ve only managed to flesh out to two. (#1 – "Midnight Train to Georgia" and #2 – "Tom Traubert’s Blues" – go ahead and scoff if you like.)

As Scott expressed in his post I was forty kinds of shocked when it was announced that Tom Waits was touring. As I glanced down the list of stops on the tour I yelped “Giddy up!” as soon as I saw Atlanta, GA. (Yeah, I was by myself – if you didn’t scoff earlier go ahead and do so now.) Tom Waits is, at least for me, a standby artist. A standby artist is usually older with a lot of albums under their belt who continue to produce new music every few years. With standby artists you always love them no matter what but your level of interest will ebb and flow through the years. No matter how much that interest may ebb, it can instantly be piqued again by mere mention of the artist’s name. My interest was at high tide earlier this year when I read Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader. While reading that book I listened to a bunch of Waits albums, did some YouTube searching, and tracked down a copy of his VH1 Storytellers. Needless to say this tour came at a pretty good time for me.

Now for the actual concert, let’s break it down using the set list…

Pre-show
I met Scott and Leigh Ann around 6:30 outside the Tabernacle. The show didn’t start until after 9:00 so we had lots of time to talk about such things as our kids, our jobs, text messaging, floor-sitters, and the delivery of gravy. A good time was had by…me. You’d have to ask them if they had a good time talking about the delivery of meat-based sauces.

Make It Rain
This is one of my favorites from the latest album. I thought Tom did a great job when he did this song on The Late Show. I even thought it would be a good show opener…and it was. I could feel a huge goofy smile on my face from the moment this song started. At this point seeing Tom Waits live was just as cool as I thought it would be. Also, Tom pulled out his best herky-jerky movements for this song.

Hoist That Rag
Another of the good songs from the latest album…but it’s way too similar to “Make It Rain” to be performed back-to-back. Although I did think this at the time I didn’t dwell on it. I just kept thinking about what he might play next.

Shore Leave
This was the highlight of the evening. The crowd was too psyched during the first song to have one of those unique crowd moments. Everyone was going crazy with “I can’t believe we’re seeing Tom Waits-itis”. I think the fact that you weren’t going to be able to understand all the words to the songs sank in for most people during the second song, but it was during Shore Leave that there was a palpable feeling of everyone loving what was happening for the same reason. We were all there to see a guy that we loved, a guy who doesn’t tour a lot, and after two new songs we all realized we were going to be treated to some old favorites -- intelligibleness of lyrics be damned.

God's Away on Business
November
That electric feeling in the room left some time during these two songs. It was still cool to see Tom Waits, but there wasn’t any thing really special about the performance of these two songs.

'Til the Money Runs Out
Blue Valentines
These two really picked it up especially "Blue Valentines".

Lucky Day
Tango til they're Sore
House Where Nobody Lives
Ahhh, the piano portion of the show. I was looking forward to this. From some random youtube findings I knew there would be a piano portion and that is when the witty banter would be bantered. Tom chose to speak about the popularity of a certain dog food that has horse penis as the main ingredient. I had never heard of it but apparently others in the audience had. It was kind of funny. “Lucky Day” was an odd choice. That’s two songs from The Black Rider in a four-song span, but "Tango til They’re Sore" and "House Where Nobody Lives" were really good. Ideally he would have done "Tom Traubert’s Blues" and "Johnsubrgh, Illinois" while at the piano.

Don't Go into that Barn
Lie to Me, Baby
Whislin' Past the Graveyard
9th & Hennepin
Trampled Rose
My most recurring thought during this span was, “Man that piano segment was short.” Second most recurring thought, “Jesus, is he going to play every song from Real Gone?”

Get Behind the Mule
Murder in the Red Barn
Shake It
I like "Get Behind the Mule" but it’s a very long song. When I recognized what song it was I was excited and then it dawned on me that its length would probably mean one or two less song in the night.

Encore #1:
Singapore
Goin' Out West
Before the show if you had told me that "Singapore" and "Goin’ Out West" would be in an encore I would had been thrilled. But with the lackluster main set list it was a slight let down. At least it was two really good songs and good performances.

Encore #2:
Day After Tomorrow
Heartattack & Vine
Before the show if you had told me that "Day After Tomorrow" would have been in the second encore I would have not been thrilled, but it was one of the most effective moments of the night. The room felt very similar to when he did "Shore Leave". You can really tell the song means a lot to Tom. I would have never imagined it being so powerful done live, but it was a great performance. "Heartattack & Vine" was a nice throw-in but a rather anticlimactic way to end the show.

If you read Scott’s review you’ll know that Tom was in blues mode (except while at the piano). I completely understand why he does that on tour. I imagine it would be pretty difficult to get an acceptable sound from banging on sheet metal and micing up a dripping faucet night in and night out. I didn’t mind the blues sound. I just wish the set list could have varied a bit more. The songs he did at the piano could have just as easily been done with the entire band. If the piano portion of the evening would have either been longer or included more of his earlier torch songs I think I would have walked away with a much more positive feeling. As it is, I saw Tom Waits live and that’s something I thought would never happen. Overall the few bright spots were worth the wait.