LIVE: Tom Waits - 08/09/06 - Chicago, IL

Performer: Tom Waits
Location: Auditorium Theatre / 430 S. Michigan Ave. / Chicago, IL
Date: 08/09/06

Review: Remember that feeling you had when you were a teenager? It was that feeling that if you didn't get to see your favorite musician, you would die or at least drink more of your friends' parents' wine coolers and Busch Light that weekend. When I was younger, I kept a mental list of musicians I needed to see before I could die a happy man. As I got older, the list got shorter as I started to see some of the bands on that list. Mostly it got shorter, however, because my priorities in life changed. I'll always be a passionate music lover and fan, but no more am I fanatic to the point where I would knock over a baby carriage to see a show. The one artist who never got scratched off that list, however, is Tom Waits. It is safe to say that the musically inclined part of myself can now die a happy man.

Tom Waits has always been the poet laureate of music to me. There are other greats like Lennon, Cohen and Drake, but for pure emotion, honesty and straightforward delivery, no one tops Waits in my book. Whether it is a young drunken man pontificating from a piano bench (Nighthawks At The Diner), a traveler down on his luck (Rain Dogs) or a man who simply wants to tinker with the tools in his studio and scream wildly (Get Behind The Mule, Real Gone), Waits has never failed to hit a nerve with me.

Despite having seats in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre so high up that my nose was afraid to bleed, there really isn't a bad seat in this beautiful building. Other than having a bit of trouble making out the bands features, Wednesday's show didn't fail to delight. Starting almost 45 minutes late, the lines to get into the all-Will Call show were quite long and the delay was probably more of a courtesy than a way to make the crowd anxious. Waits requests that all liquor sales are halted before the show begins due to the fact that his live performances are just as much theatre and storytelling as they are music so this delay gave the drinkers enough time to finish their drinks and woozily make it to their seats. Besides, all one had to do was to look around the audience to see several men who were old enough to know better dressed, primped and postured to look exactly like Tom Waits himself. There is no doubt in my mind that some of these guys still would knock over a baby carriage to see this show.

When Tom finally did take the stage, which was strewn and set with speakers, instruments and acoustical toys in a small mountain, he was in top carnival barker form. His signature gravelled voice came on stark and strong. As the band kept their wobbly precision to the song "Make It Rain," Tom screamed the chorus as if he was really addressing the clouds, who, he knows, have more power than the gods. Next came the clattering, but irrefutably danceable "Hoist That Rag." Dressed in his signature suit and hat, Tom rarely moved from the small wooden platform provided for him in front of a stack of bullhorn-style speakers. Spasming and pulling at the air with his clutching hands, the theatrics were present, but all necessary and all natural. After a few songs, the stage banter Waits is known (and lauded) for began. Most of it was Chicago themed as Waits spent a short time living in Chicago in the seventies. He said something about cows, but much of what was said was muffled due to the distance to our gallery seats.

The first highlight, for me, was when a piano was wheeled out onto the stage and Waits fell back into his old ways of tickling keys and tickling the audience with songs and banter. Though only two songs long, the piano set contained two of his best. First came "Tango Till They're Sore" followed by a story about Chicago's famous Wiener's Circle and how the employees there called Tom a "dickweed." Ending his respite at the ivory was "Tom Traubert's Blues," which seemed to be a crowd favorite.

Judging by Tom's speaking voice, many of the more blues driven songs with harsh staccato lyrics were expected. The gruff storyteller's personality had given way to a more rollicking country-tinged one as Waits picked up a small guitar to play rhythm. The stories he did tell, through the songs "Eyeball Kid" and "What's He Building In There?" took on a sound-collage creepiness while some of his other well known songs were hardly recognizable until they were well underway. Many of the songs were provided with a more bluesy beat than they originally had, but the band and Waits himself were having a good time morphing well known masterpieces into something completely different and equally enjoyable. Toward the end of the first set, they played a medley of the old Howlin' Wolf song "Who's Been Talking?" mixed with Waits' own "Till The Money Runs Out." At moments, it was as if they were blending the two songs like a DJ would. The first set ended with a powerful feed of "Get Behind The Mule."

After only a few minutes of crowd roar Tom took the stage again and with a spotlight on him and his guitar, he sang a somber and moving rendition of the searching soldier's song, "The Day After Tomorrow." The audience was moved to silence with a few uncontrollable cries of admiration. From the quiet, the band re-emerged with an explosive version of "Singapore."

Previous to attending the show, I had been reading the setlists for the other stops on this short Orphans Tour (a tour to celebrate the release of Waits' 3-disc Orphans Rarities Box Set) to get an idea of what to expect. The first thing I did not expect was a second encore. Most of the setlists I had read included only one, but after five more minutes of darkened cheering and enough foot stamping to bring the 100+ year old Auditorium Theatre down, the band came back and slid directly into "Whistling Past The Graveyard." What followed was completely unexpected. I had secret hopes that Tom would play my favorite song. I could revert to my teen self and write a review as long as this one, explaining all of the different things that song has meant to me at different times, but I will spare you. Regardless, I didn't think Tom's voice was up for it and I haven't seen a setlist from the last ten years where he had played that song so I had completely written it out of the realm of possibility. So, when Waits quietly sang, "The smart money's on Harlem..." I very nearly turned into a twelve year old girl seeing the New Kids On The Block. Of course, I regained my composure, put my arm around my girlfriend, swayed and quietly sang along to my favorite Tom Waits song, "Time."

So, I'm done with lists. Every concert I see from now on is simply more icing on the icing. Tom Waits was the pinnacle. The requirement filled. Waits had an amazing presence that ricocheted from playful to stern and his backing band was spot on each time. The stand-up bassist and vibe/banjo/keyboard players gave exceptional performances. I only wish I could have heard Waits' spoken banter better so I knew what their names were. Regardless, each second of the show was carried off without a hitch and I cannot remember the last time I was filled with so much awe at a concert. My condolences to all who were unable to get tickets.

Setlist

Make It Rain
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away On Business
All The World Is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore
Tom Traubert's Blues
Eyeball Kid
Down In The Hole
Don't Go Into That Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building In There
Who's Been Talking / Till The Money Runs Out
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie To Me Baby
Get Behind The Mule

Day After Tomorrow
Singapore

Whistlin' Past The Graveyard
Time

Rating: 4.75 / 5