Tom Waits Live

February 22, 2005 9:54 AM

Tom Waits Bootlegs: Paris 2000, Warsaw 2000, Los Angeles 1998 & Oakland 1996 + full discography & lyrics sheet. Also: great audio interview from this week's Cool Ivories show at American Routes, via the Tom Waits News blog.
posted by jenleigh (45 comments total)

Awsome: This post

Not Awsome: The fact that this page will be gone (due to bandwidth or lawyers) by the time I get home and could actually grab these.
posted by Capn at 10:05 AM on February 22, 2005

D'oh. The mp3's from the first link are unfindable in Firefox and IE. How quickly does the joy turn to sorrow! I have a bunch of bootlegs from the Bone Machine tour and would love to hear stuff from Variations. I was in the front row for one of the Orpheum performances in Boston and have yet to wash the dust-covered t-shirt I wore.

So when's he touring the States for Real Gone? I need to know, I have a wedding to plan around!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:08 AM on February 22, 2005

Gotta love the download them all extension in firefox. Oh wait...NOOO!!!
posted by Quartermass at 10:12 AM on February 22, 2005

Are these dreams or are these prayers? Excellent, either way.
posted by scody at 10:21 AM on February 22, 2005

Saw him several times in '74-'75. His voice is horrible now. Why listen to that? Go for the old stuff.
posted by HTuttle at 10:22 AM on February 22, 2005

Coffee with Tom Waits - a recent interview.
posted by liam at 10:34 AM on February 22, 2005

The mp3's from the first link are unfindable in Firefox and IE.

Anyone else with that experience? I grabbed a few files via IE 6 and Firefox 1 just now without problems.
posted by jenleigh at 10:38 AM on February 22, 2005

HTuttle, do you dislike the state of Tom Wait's voice so much that you fail to notice that his music has evolved quite a bit in the last 30 years?
posted by nequalsone at 10:42 AM on February 22, 2005

works for me. thanks for this. this is amazing.
posted by shmegegge at 10:44 AM on February 22, 2005

Speaking of older shows, there's a great bootleg from an Australian tour called Cold Beer on a Hot Night. I hope I hope I hope these are still here by the next time I'll be able to download (TOMORROW!)
posted by kenko at 10:46 AM on February 22, 2005

OH MY GOD I LOVE TOM WAITS. I really wish I had been old enough to see him back when he played live with any regularity.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 10:46 AM on February 22, 2005

His voice is horrible now. Why listen to that? Go for the old stuff.

Because his music is still incredible? Oh, and because everything before small change was boring and unoriginal.
posted by shmegegge at 10:48 AM on February 22, 2005

I just listened to that American Routes interview a couple of days ago. Fascinating stuff.

I don't find his voice horrible at all. Sure it's gravelly and scratchy and all the rest. Sure it's not for everybody, but he certainly makes the best of it. It seems that as his voice has changed, his music has also changed to fit. In the early days he seemed to be a bit of a beat jazz storyteller -- still gravelly but with a bit of a crooner's edge. Now the music tends to be more raw and percussive. How can you not love the raw growl as he shouts "Hoist that Rag" (on the new album)?

But at the same time, he still manages some incredibly sweet and touching songs these days as well -- for instance "take it with me" from Mule variations is one of the most beautiful, sweet and sad songs I've ever heard. It gives me shivers every time.
posted by jnthnjng at 10:49 AM on February 22, 2005

I'm still not getting anything off the page. My connections are timing out and I am a sad, sad person. However, if one of you lucky folks could spare a forward or several, all your hopes and dreams will come true.

Do you think there's a limit to the amount of people who can download at any one time?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:52 AM on February 22, 2005

There's no need to apologize for Waits' voice. You either get it or you don't.
posted by Hildago at 10:56 AM on February 22, 2005

Thanks, I'll add these to my collection!

because everything before small change

Can I remind you that "Closing Time" is the greatest collection of perfect songs ever written ? Boring compared to his later work ? Maybe. But I still play it every week.

And I second the request for a US tour for Real Gone. I missed the few shows last year due to other obligations.
posted by swordfishtrombones at 11:07 AM on February 22, 2005

well, a website generally has a limited amount of bandwidth, so yeah, there's a limit to the number of people who can download at once. It seems to be timing out for me as well. Probably try later tonight.
posted by jnthnjng at 11:09 AM on February 22, 2005

It's all working for me and the voice is fantastic; HTuttle needs a check up from the neck up.

I wish I could thank jenleigh enough for this post, but I can't, it's not possible.
posted by Fat Buddha at 12:10 PM on February 22, 2005

This is awesome, thanks! I really like Tom Waits' voice; I think it has increased in character/expressiveness (read: tar) over the years.
posted by nTeleKy at 12:33 PM on February 22, 2005

jenleigh, great find! now i just need an excuse to leave work early so i can go download these....
posted by scottymacten at 12:41 PM on February 22, 2005

Someone tell me why I should be into Tom Waits. The only work of his I'm familiar with is his work with Primus on "Coattails of a Dead Man." Is there some stuff I should grab first, or what?
posted by Eideteker at 12:42 PM on February 22, 2005

Oddly, someone emailed me last week thinking I ran that site. It seems I snagged a gmail address with this nick before the site owner could.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:45 PM on February 22, 2005

I was at that Paris show, it was incredible. Thanks, this is great!
posted by miss tea at 12:53 PM on February 22, 2005

tom waits is amazing. thank you so much for these links.
posted by bison at 12:56 PM on February 22, 2005

I saw these some time ago; the page is pretty old, probably surviving because its Russian. My absolute favorite track on that page is the version of "Yesterday is Here" in the Oakland show. It's powerful!
posted by kaibutsu at 1:00 PM on February 22, 2005

Someone tell me why I should be into Tom Waits.

You should be in to Tom Waits because you like his music. I'm not being filppant, I'm serious.

Tom Waits is a songwriter and musician. If you like his songs, cool, if you don't, you don't.

(Of course, if you don't like his songs you are wrong wrong wrong WRONG *WRONG*!)
posted by Capn at 1:06 PM on February 22, 2005

Eideteker : depends on what music you're into. His early work is really accesible, as it's almost a classic lounge bar style. With his move to Island records (check out e.g. Rain Dogs), he changed style to the more familiar rambling, howling blues style. His latest, Real Gone, is very lo-fi, so you might not want to start there.

(on preview: what Capn said!)
posted by swordfishtrombones at 1:08 PM on February 22, 2005

Thanks for the intw link. Fantastico. Listening, I had deja vu though. Like I had read it before, specifically Q&A about commandeering the turntable at home. I realize this had to be around the time of Real Gone, but I could have sworn I'd read a transcript of this long before then. How is that possible?
posted by rough at 1:19 PM on February 22, 2005

...I could have sworn I'd read a transcript of this long before then. How is that possible?

Waits does tend to reuse some of his favorite shtick. At the bottom of the interview that I linked to, it's noted that one "bit", about getting a sandwich made in the UK, is repeated from an interview five years earlier.
posted by liam at 1:32 PM on February 22, 2005

Is there some stuff I should grab first, or what?

I second the suggestion to start with any of his "trilogy" on Island -- swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, or Frank's Wild Years. All of them are a good mixture of his rambling/howling blues (as the aptly-named swordfishtrombones says above) as well as some truly exquisite, heartfelt songwriting and endlessly quotable lyrics, not to mention some great experimental/noisy instrumentation. (Seriously, no one bangs on a radiator like Waits.) Just FYI, Frank's Wild Years is basically a concept album (there's also a song by the same title on swordfish) for the operetta he wrote of the same name -- so it's got the clearest storyline, and is arguably the "prettiest" of the three in terms of the songwriting.
posted by scody at 1:59 PM on February 22, 2005

wooo! [this is very nice]
posted by brevator at 2:06 PM on February 22, 2005

I'm a fan and am looking forward to off-work surfing of the site so thanks for the post.

But, itsn't a bootleg, by definition, a recording that's not being offered by the artist? Not that I'm complaining.
posted by fenriq at 4:15 PM on February 22, 2005

I've just been reading a Tom Waits biog on the train to work this week (finished it a couple of hours ago, so this post is rather spooky). Whilst reading I've been playing the appropriate album for each chapter on my Ipod at the same time for the full 'multimedia' experience.
Early stuff, late stuff, it's all good: from Closing Time through to Real Gone (but I guess my favourites have to be the usually cited ones of swordfishtrombones & Rain Dogs).
Anyway, wow, excellent link. Thanks jenleigh.

Time to kill the poor guys bandwidth......
posted by qwerty155 at 4:41 PM on February 22, 2005

...spooky for me, at least. I don't imagine it's gonna keep anyone else awake this evening.
posted by qwerty155 at 4:45 PM on February 22, 2005

He did do a few shows touring for Real Gone. I saw him in Seattle (in November or December... can't recall). He was headed to Vancouver, then off to Europe.

I also got to see his Mule Variations show in Seattle a few years earlier. Both amazing. Both were quite different. Liked the Real Gone show better.
posted by FYKshun at 5:02 PM on February 22, 2005

I was in a used CD shop a few years ago, and they had Frank's Wild Years playing. The music lingered in the background of my attention until the part with the roosters, then I started really listening to it. I stood there, amazed in the aisle, for about 5 minutes, then went over to the clerk and asked "What is this?" "Tom Waits!" came the enthusiastic reply. "I would like to purchase this." "Sorry, I already got dibs." Had to buy the damned thing at Tower Records of all places.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:17 PM on February 22, 2005

Took me a long time to see that Tom Waits for no man, so as a new fan who's never seen him live these links where VANGLOURIOUS Thank You, the unreleased studio tracks were not to shaby either...mighty fine
posted by RecordBrother at 9:15 PM on February 22, 2005

Took me a long time to see that Tom Waits for no man, so as a new fan who's never seen him live these links where VANGLOURIOUS Thank You, the unreleased studio tracks were mighty fine as well
posted by RecordBrother at 9:16 PM on February 22, 2005

qwerty155, what's the name of the biography?
posted by squirrel at 9:32 PM on February 22, 2005

I own 4 of his Vinyl records, including Mule Variations. So there.
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:23 PM on February 22, 2005

Squirrel, tis this one.
It's a couple of years old now, but it's not a bad read (it's the only Waits book I've read, so there may be better). I think the most interesting thing in the book was a fairly comprehensive list of his collaborations that I wasnt aware of, so there's a huge list of stuff for the obsessive fan to hunt down.
posted by qwerty155 at 2:29 AM on February 23, 2005

Thanks jenleigh! This is fantastic! Got to see him live in Chicago a few years back and it was, hands down, one of the best live gigs I've been to. The man is absolutely captivating. It's great to stray from the studio albums for a while and hear the live stuff.
posted by zombiebunny at 5:00 AM on February 23, 2005

Ooooh. Thanks for this. As my username suggest, I am a huge Tom Waits fan. I started listening to him at the ripe old age of 8 and I have no intention of stopping.

(It does seem wrong that songs about drinking and despair remind me of my childhood... I guess I was just precocious in my musical tastes.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:47 AM on February 23, 2005

qwerty155: There is also 'Small Change', a 1989 biography by Patrick Humphries, cobbled together from old articles. It's very, very bad.
posted by liam at 7:58 AM on February 23, 2005

Oh please powers that be...please if you are listening... please, please, please line up a part two for the Real Gone tour and schedule a show at the Paramount in Oakland this year.

I was poor/unlucky enough to not get tickets when TW came to the bay area the last time :( I can't think of another artist who I would wish to see more than Tom Waits.
posted by prettyboyfloyd at 8:56 AM on February 23, 2005