Give it up and throw me down a couple of quid...

Thursday I left work early and headed over to Birmingham to see Tom Waits at the Alabama Theatre.

Alabama Theatre Auditorium

When I'm asked to share the best concert I've ever seen, two artists come to mind. First is Peter Rowan, who is an excellent songwriter and the most captivating performer I've seen in my life, as well as the most amazing storyteller in the world. He can be almost hypnotic. The second is James Brown. More stage presence than I've ever seen in my life, insane energy, and an ensemble to be reckoned with.

However, though I cannot in any way, shape, form or fashion deduct any merit from either of those two artists, I feel secure in saying that Tom Waits has hit the top of that list. I'm finding it difficult to describe how utterly blown away I was.

So, until I figure out how to describe this most insanely wonderful spectacle, here's the setlist.

1. Lucinda/Ain't Goin' Down to the Well (Orphans)
2. Way Down in the Hole (Frank's Wild Years)
3. Falling Down (Big Time)
4. Hold On (Mule Variations)
5. Chocolate Jesus (Mule Variations)
6. Cemetary Polka (Rain Dogs)
7. Poor Edward (Alice)
8. Lie to Me (Orphans)
9. Hang Down Your Head (Rain Dogs)
10. All the World is Green (Blood Money)
11. Black Market Baby (Mule Variations)
12. Frank's Wild Years (Swordfishtrombones)
13. Misery is the River of the World (Blood Money)
14. Tango Till They're Sore (Rain Dogs)
15. On the Nickel (Heartattack and Vine)--Tom on piano
16. Diamond In Your Mind--Tom on piano
17. Innocent When You Dream (Frank's Wild Years)--Tom on piano
18. Jockey Full of Bourbon (Rain Dogs)
19. Make It Rain (Real Gone)
20. Jesus Gonna Be Here (Bone Machine)
21. Cold Cold Ground (Frank's Wild Years)
22. November (The Black Rider)
23. Hoist That Rag (Real Gone) w/ Sullivan Waits on congas

Encore:

1. Singapore (Rain Dogs)
2. Dirt in the Ground (Bone Machine)
3. Come on Up to the House (Mule Variations)

The setting was incredible--and couldn't have been more perfect. The stage setup was of course, busy...Tom's raised platform for shuffling/dancing/stomping purposes (complete with ready access to a really big drum and a gong), and each ensemble member's primary instrument and lots of various whatnot strategically placed about. I honestly can't describe the extent of noise-making objects that were on stage...in part because many of them seemed unique and in part because I was in the balcony, at the point where if you stand on a step and look down to the orchestra pit you find yourself getting dizzy.

As for the performance, all I can think to say is it was out of this world. The setlist perfectly followed Rob Gordon's philosophy for mixtape-making.* The show progressed like a slow escalation into the upper levels of the atmosphere which culminated in a sensation of near weightlessness. Some of the high points for me were "Chocolate Jesus" and "Cemetary Polka" because I love them both...then Tom caught a gear and hit his stride with "Lie to Me." I was thrilled to hear "Black Market Baby" and "Frank's Wild Years" (one of Tom's spoken-word recordings) was really great to see as well.

A few songs later was "Tango Till They're Sore"...which I love. Something about "falling out the window with confetti in my hair" just says me. Then, the band walked off stage and Tom Went over and sat down behind his piano. The bass player also stayed on stage. Those three songs, as noted above, were beyond words. It was wonderful to see him at the piano and hearing him at his most basic level--the way he started out with Closing Time. Songwriter and piano. Oh, and bass...which added quite a lot to the piano. I would've loved to have heard "Ol' 55," but I forgot that song even existed when he started into "Innocent When You Dream." And believe me, that's saying something.

I will admit, however, that the one song I absolutely HAD to hear was "Jockey Full of Bourbon." As soon as the band returned to the stage and I heard the first two notes, I screamed like a teenage girl. What made it even more awesome was the fact that I was just in New Orleans, and the opening of Jim Jarmusch's film Down By Law is a sequence of moving shots in black and white while "driving" down the streets of New Orleans to that song. I was in the Alabama Theatre watching Tom Waits perform "Jockey Full of Bourbon" with images of New Orleans vividly running through my mind.

Every song after "Jockey Full of Bourbon" was a high point. During "Make It Rain," Tom held out his hands and glitter fell from above the stage and rained down on him, which was insanely cool. "Cold Cold Ground" and "November" provided a brief break in the energy, but no break whatsoever in intensity. And then zang..."Hoist That Rag," with Tom's son on congas. Mindblowing.

The encore was perfect...I have to say that "Dirt In The Ground" made me feel my insides...Tom's delivery was so real that everyone in the auditorium should have felt it. Ending with "Come On Up To The House" gave me all kinds of goosebumps. This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through. You've gotta come on up to the house. That one did move me to tears. I've never seen an altar call that moved me that much. It was amazing. 

And throughout the show he stomped on his powdered platform, bringing up puffs of fog around his feet and later disturbing the glitter, danced and strolled and slid, and made various adjustments to his hat. The stage presence and performance that he demonstrated boggles the mind. This man was born to do exactly what he does.

I left at midnight, all aflutter with wonderment.

Then, around five the next morning, I heard the gravel driveway under my tires. The three-ish hour roadtrip was great both ways...though the drive back was longer as it was necessary to drive at more reasonable speeds and stop for coffee. But there were tunes, and singing, and...well, more tunes and singing. It's good to have a room of one's own*** every now and again...even if that room is the interior of a Honda CRV. 

*From High Fidelity: The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

**Thanks to The Eyeball Kid...whose site I stumbled onto when researching titles I wasn't certain of...for having that most helpful site as well providing help with the title of this blog.

***Virginia Woolf