Friday, June 20

Glitter and Doom

Phoenix 6/18/08

The Glitter and Doom tour did not disappoint! Tom Waits live. I’m not sure how it could be disappointing. I am a fan of seeing an artist with no opening act, especially an artist of Tom’s caliber. There is no pussyfooting around, plus I can’t think of anyone who could have warmed up the audience for Mr. Waits. Based on the immediate standing ovation he reseived when he appeared on stage it was clear no warm up was warranted.

The show was amazing. Tom was up on a carnivalesque pedestal that made it really easy to see him and all of his performance antics. He was stomping and kicking parts of the pedestal all night long, stomping on bells, kicking different little percussive boxes. It was great, he was like a grand, and somewhat insane master of ceremonies.

With hindsight and a little chit chat with some other concert goers after the show ,at a local Irish pub, we realized we should have gotten tickets for both nights. It never really occurred to us. Not sure why, I guess we just felt lucky to get tickets at all and didn’t think about trying for two nights. Most everyone we talked to agreed that the second night was better, but it would have been nice to see both. Apparently the setlists were fairly different.

This show easily moved to the top of my best shows seen list for this year. I can’t think of anything I could see that would top Tom fucking Waits!

Lucinda
Way Down in the Hole
Falling Down
All the World Is Green *
Misery is the River of the World *
Day After Tomorrow
Sins of the Father
Trampled Rose
Metropolitan Glide *
Dead and Lovely
Cemetery Polka
Dirt in the Ground
Hoist That Rag *
A Little Rain
Innocent When You Dream *
Lost in the Harbour
16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six *
Jesus Gonna Be Here
------------------------------
November *
Eyeball Kid *

* my personal faves

Some photos from night 1 in Phoenix are up on Pitchfork here: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/51363-photos-tom-waits-phoenix-az-061708

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