TOM WAITS - ATLANTA 2008
August 3, 2008 – 4:10 pm
Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.
TOM WAITS
Atlanta 2008 [no label, 2CD]
Live at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA, July 5, 2008. Very good NPR podcast.
Tom Waits doesn’t tour a lot nor does he tour widely. And if the cities he hit on the 2008 “Glitter and Doom” tour can be strung into a mnemonic such as “PEHDTSCKJMBA,” he can’t be touring far and wide. “PEHDTSCKJMBA” (pronounced “pess-kuh-JUM-buh”) is an acronym for each of the tour’s stops: Phoenix, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile, Birmingham and Atlanta.
Fortunately, the Atlanta show, at the Fox Theatre, was broadcast on National Public Radio. A special word of thanks to RBayers who tracked the show (NPR offered the 141-minute show as a continuous stream) and shared it on the internet.
According to the NPR write-up: “For his Atlanta stop, Waits delivered a stunning and epic two-and-a-half-hour performance, including songs he says he’s never attempted outside of the studio before. Backing Waits is a five-piece group featuring Seth Ford-Young (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). ‘They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers,’ Waits says. ‘They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men’.”
Writing in Atlanta Magazine, Steve Fennessy noted: “The show was unique in a lot of ways. When tickets went on sale about six weeks ago, Waits became the first artist to try out a new way of getting tickets into the hands of fans, as opposed to scalpers. Buyers were limited to two tickets each, and instead of paper tickets being sent through the mail, buyers had to show their credit card at the door the night of the show. Ushers scanned the card with a handheld device, which then spat out a slip of paper with your seat numbers on it. In this way, scalpers were largely taken out of the equation…
“I was lucky enough to score third row center seats for the show, and I’m convinced - writing this three days after the fact - that, in the 25 years I’ve been going to concerts, it was the single best musical event I’ve ever witnessed. What made it so great? That’s a tough one to answer. Certainly the venue is spectacular, the sound was spot-on, and my vantage point was incredible. And the band (which included his son on drums) was, to dissect the word, utterly in concert with each other, and with Waits, who led them with sharp whistles and a raised arm. But it was Waits himself, in his bowler hat and boots, stomping the floor of the platform from which he sang and raising a cloud of what appeared to be baby powder, that, no surprise, made the night. Between songs, he took sips from a steaming styrofoam cup, which probably contained tea but I decided actually contained tacks, the better to stretch and tear his vocal cords and allow them to make the most guttural, gravelly, gorgeous sounds. Waits’s voice is an acquired taste, and it is, in every conceivable way, the opposite of smooth. He plays guitar - not to mention piano melodies that will make you weep - but it’s his voice that is his true instrument, coming in off-beat, playing with the syncopation, down in the gutter and occasionally keening toward the roof.”
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, this recording has never been officially released.
These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you want to download these tracks at a later time.
Disc 1
01. Intro
02. Lucinda / Ain’t Going Down to the Well
03. Down in the hole
04. Falling down
05. Chocolate Jesus
06. All the world is green
07. Cemetery Polka
08. Cause of it all / ‘Til the money runs out (w/Larry Taylor on guitar)
09. Such a scream
10. November
11. Hold on
12. Black market baby
13. 9th and Hennepin
14. Lie to me
Disc 2
01. Lucky Day
02. On The Nickel
03. Lost In The Harbour
04. Innocent When You Dream
05. Hoist That Rag
06. Make It Rain
07. Dirt In The Ground
08. Get Behind The Mule (w/Larry Taylor on guitar)
09. Hang Down Your Head
10. Jesus Gonna Be Here
11. Singapore
Encore:
12. Eyeball Kid
13. Anywhere I Lay My Head
Lineup:
Tom Waits - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Seth Ford-Young - upright bass
Patrick Warren - keyboards
Omar Torrez - guitars
Vincent Henry - woodwinds
Casey Waits - drums, percussion
Tom Waits’s last studio album was 2004’s Real Gone. In 2006, he released the three-disc, Grammy-nominated Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, a collection of new and old recordings. Buy the collection here.
15 Responses to “TOM WAITS - ATLANTA 2008”
thank you wholeheartedly. this made my day (night, that is). any Tom Waits is always appraciated, especially since i won’t be able to catch him somewhere on the PEHDTSCKJMBA way this year.
looking forward to part II.
By a. on Aug 4, 2008
Thank You! great sound, and the set list has some songs I haven’t heard live, like Hennepin & 9th (”all the doughnuts have names like prostitutes”). Also THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for putting th second volume of the Coca-Cola commercials up. I bought disc 1 many years ago; disc 2 is impossible to get these days.
By Eric on Aug 4, 2008
Already enjoyed the stream on NPR; was planning to cut the podcast into seperate tracks.
But here they are.
Thanks a lot!
By ez on Aug 4, 2008
The Atlanta gig is one hell of a show! Thanks alot for sharing this with us! Saw him recently in Milano, Italy: A stunning show with astronomical high ticket prices – 240 US dollars for one ticket!
By Tony Lauber on Aug 4, 2008
ALWAYS THE BEST !!!
By chupa mi concha on Aug 4, 2008
this ticket selling system is stupid.
what if you don´t have a credit card?
what if you are a group of five or six people who want to see this concert together?
and what if you don´t want to give away so many personal information just because you want to see a concert?
and the ticket prices are not a rip off any more, that´s robbery!
(the recording is great, anyway)
By Walter on Aug 4, 2008
wonderful! simply wonderful.
thanks…
By jeff on Aug 5, 2008
In case you didn’t know, this recording comes from NPR’s free “Live Concerts from All Songs Considered” podcast, available at npr.org via iTunes (I tried posting the direct URLs but apparently that ability is blocked by this board; you should be able to search for them easily enough, though). Not sure if it’s available outside the US (due to copyright restrictions) but it’s highly recommended, lots of great free full-length shows by the likes of Waits, Spiritualized, Richard Thompson, Low, Mogwai, etc.
By Hell's Donut House on Aug 5, 2008
Oops, that should have read “at npr.org OR via iTunes”
By Hell's Donut House on Aug 5, 2008
I thought “E” was for “Edinburgh” - he was there only a week or so ago.
Apologies - i’m congenitally incapable of a US-centric (or for that matter Anglo-centric) view. I blame my parents …
By John on Aug 6, 2008
i had this already through the NPR cast … but not in seperate tracks ! thanks you very much
I saw Tom in Paris : was unforgettable !
cheers to all
n@e
By Nowandever on Aug 6, 2008
I saw Tom Waits with Leon Redbone in a concert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1982. He was 2 hours late for his entrance, but when he did appear, and he was “in fine spirits”, he gave a great, great performance. Since that date oh, so long ago, I have been fortunate to watch the venerable Mr. Waits transform himself into the icon he has become. What a wonderful poet.
By Mike Kitts on Aug 7, 2008
Help with these streaming files?
Love the Tom Waits concert. How do i “capture” these streaming files so I can have a copy in I tunes or my Ipod.
thanks everyone, any help would be appreciated.
steve
By steve on Aug 9, 2008
Hello Steve
Thanks for your note.
If you are PC user, use the right button on the mouse.
If you are a Mac user, hold the “option” key and click on the download link.
By bigozine2 on Aug 10, 2008
Thank you. You made my day. A month.
The concert is really great.
Sasa
By Sasa on Oct 21, 2008