Comments on: ON TOM WAITS AND THE LIVE RECORD

By: bear

bear — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:10:46 +0000

Waits is my soundtrack, in part because I used to live in that little town the previous poster’s husband is stalking about…

Live albums: James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards, Live in Aught Three. Classic.

By: buckets

buckets — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:01:11 +0000

San Quentin – Johnny Cash
Kicking Television – Wilco
Waiting for Columbus – Little Feat
Royall Albert Hall – Bob Dylan
Nighthawks @ the Diner – Tom Waits

just to name a few……

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:15:35 +0000

First off, I became a HUGE Tom Waits fan about 6 years ago, and since have bought ALL of his CDs, and seen him in concert three times (Detroit 06, Columbus and Knoxville 08). Easily the three greatest concerts I have ever attended, topping Neil Young in 07 and Bob Seger way back in the day.
The G&D live release has mixed emotions for me. I’ve already heard boots of just about every show in recent years, and have boots of his shows going back to the 70’s. As mentioned above, the Atlanta soundboard was great, and it appears that the quality of the new CD will be as great, if not better.
It’s bittersweet for me because I was hoping for a brand new release with new songs (he hasn’t had one since 04; Orpans was mostly older songs we’d heard before with new arrangements.)
That said, give it a listen. My wife was NOT a fan until she went to her first Waits show, and was both reluctant and skeptical. She has been totally hooked ever since. Now she says we’ll go wherever he is performing.
Finally, if you are a closet Tom Waits fan, you might want to join a bunch of us at Raindogs on Listserv.
Regards, Dave.

By: Curt Shannon

Curt Shannon — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:56:31 +0000

I was lucky enough to see TW at the very beginning of his career, but missed him last summer when he actually was in Atlanta!

As to live albums, I would humbly submit the Band’s “Last Waltz” and Little Feat’s “Waiting for Columbus.”

By: Skip

Skip — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:09:24 +0000

Saw Waits live on the tour before this one- his first show in Detroit in over 20 years. Excellent. This sampler didn’t do much for me, but I’ve only listened once. It’ll probably grow on me.

By: larry

larry — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:39:21 +0000

I flew to Nashville to see him at The Ryman last year; at once making two wishes come true: seeing a show at The Ryman, seeing an elusive Tom Waits show.

It was incredible. I hope they tracked a few songs from that night because the acoustics in that place are sick.

The live, acoustic My Morning Jacket EP is great. For a while I listened to that more often than their studio stuff.

By: Robbmc

Robbmc — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:23:22 +0000

I was lucky enough to catch Waits twice last summer in Edinburgh and it easily dethroned Dylan at the tiny Glasgow Barrowlands as my favourite gig of all time. No mean feat.

In May of this year Anti records released a 7″ single featuring Bottom of the World from Edinburgh and the sound quality was terrible. And it’s a shame but it doesn’t seem any better on this record either. It seems crazy that they couldn’t use soundboard recordings or at least rigged up one show with a decent recording setup.

Having said all that I’ve still pre-ordered the vinyl

For anyone wanting to sample a Waits show without buying the record (or for anyone who wants to here a complete show), NPR recorded the Atlanta gig and made it available online.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92916923

By: Cowbelle

Cowbelle — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:45:07 +0000

Yeah, good point. I love Mule Variations for providing that cross-section but this seems more uniform in style.

Ditto on the TVZ Live at the Old Quarter.

By: kasey

kasey — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:10:22 +0000

martin – townes live at the old quarter is a great record. slipped my mind when i wrote this, which is my mistake.

the cash folsom prison/san quentin records are classics for sure but i don’t find myself listening to them much. maybe i oughta.

i have the pearl jam green habit thing and a number of their official bootlegs. i’ve been a rabid fan since i was 12 years old, when ten was released. if i was to make a list of the ten best shows i’ve ever seen, i bet 3-5 pearl jam shows would wind up on that list.

eli – yeah, i wasn’t counting bootlegs as much as official live releases. for whatever reason, those tend to fall flat whereas i have plenty of bootlegs that get heavy rotation.

lollyrae – if your husband can snap a photo of waits in his natural habitat, more power to him! i’d certainly be lingering around.

cowbelle – one thing the free sample doesn’t do is give a good cross-section of waits’ material. it’s almost all that “the devil swallowed louis armstrong” voice, which is really cool, but waits is a very versatile vocalist and that’s not really represented in the sample. i’m guessing it will be moreso on the live record. maybe not.

By: Cowbelle

Cowbelle — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:00:13 +0000

What I’ve heard from the free tracks isn’t doing it for me. I consider myself a Waits fan, and would love to see him live, but maybe it’s not translating on CD without having the memory of the live show to back it up.