{"id":486,"date":"2008-06-19T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/docwiggly.wordpress.com\/2008\/06\/19\/tom-waits-tour-opener-in-pheonix-show-review\/"},"modified":"2008-06-19T22:34:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-19T22:34:00","slug":"tom-waits-tour-opener-in-pheonix-show-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2008\/06\/19\/tom-waits-tour-opener-in-pheonix-show-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Waits tour opener in Pheonix show review"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/reviewermagazine.com\/tom-waits-show-review-page.html<\/p>\n

[show review]<\/h6>\n

Tom Waits <\/h1>\n

6-17-08 (Tour\u2019s Opening Night)
\nOrpheum Theatre
\nPhoenix, AZ<\/p>\n

story and photos by Jim Steinfeldt<\/b>
\n
\nBand:
\n Tom Waits: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Megaphone
\n Casey Waits: Drums
\n Seth Ford-Young: Bass
\n Omar Torrez: Guitar, Cigar Box Banjo
\n Patrick Warren: Keyboards
\n Vincent Henry: Sax, Clarinet, Harmonica
\n<\/i>
\n\u201cWE CAN\u2019T KEEP TALKING LIKE THIS AT THESE PRICES.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

So spoke Mr. Waits and yet he did keep talking, to and with the audience and it helped make a great show a truly incredible one.<\/p>\n

Waits told anecdotal stories about outdated laws in various cities throughout the country, from his perspective as a traveling musician:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Phoenix horses must wear diapers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Arizona a one armed piano player must perform for free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waits\u2019 ability as an actor became evident in much of his performance. His constant finger snapping conjured up the age of Cool Jazz and Beatniks. Bending down low while grasping the microphone stand and looking back at his band was reminiscent of James Brown. On one song Vincent Henry\u2019s clarinet had strains of Klezmer music so Waits danced a sort of Yiddish jig. Later in the show Waits turns his back to the crowd and pretends to be \u201cmaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another highlight of the performance was Waits\u2019 repeated stomping on the wooden floorboards of the ornate riser he stood on. When he\u2019d stomp his foot, clouds of dust would come up, sometimes up to his knees and beyond. It reminded me of the cloud of dust that follows Linus around in the Charlie Brown comics? It gave the show a feel of being in an old tavern or vaudeville house (most appropriate here at the Orpheum). Later in the show Waits would add some humor by raising his foot to stomp again but then lower it slowly as if to say, \u201cA-ha, you thought I was going to send up some more dust? Gotcha!\u201d<\/p>\n

It may have been over 100-degrees outside the theatre and plenty hot in the theatre but Waits performed in a shirt, vest, sport coat, baggy pants, giant work boots and bowler hat. He wiped his brow a lot.<\/p>\n

As for his voice it was the Louis Armstrong on steroids his fans love. The Armstrong influence was especially evident on \u201cChocolate Jesus\u201d when Waits sang through a megaphone.<\/p>\n

Other song hi-lights included \u201cGoing Out West\u201d with a beautiful harmonica part, \u201cMurder At The Red Barn\u201d where red lights washed the stage, \u201cCemetery Polka\u201d where drum mallets were used to good effect and \u201cAnywhere I Lay My Head\u201d where the drummer played a xylophone. On \u201cEyeball Kid\u201d Waits traded in his black bowler for a mirror covered bowler. When the spotlights hit his hat he became a disco ball. Towards the end of the show Waits played piano with just his bassist. The vibe reminded me of old Vaudeville like Clayton, Jackson and Durante. At one point Waits, who\u2019s 58, said \u201cI\u2019m old,\u201d remarking that he was that night at the beginning of a long tour. However when he sang \u201cPicture In A Frame\u201d and delivered the lyric \u201dI love you baby and always will\u201d his face changed just for an instant and I saw a glint of the once young Tom Waits.<\/p>\n

The lighting and set design were outstanding. It was truly one of the best I\u2019ve seen and so appropriate for Waits\u2019 music and persona.<\/p>\n

The lights included red, blue, yellow and orange light boxes in various geometric forms placed around the stage. Waits, his band and their instruments were often lit to cast Shadows against the black backdrop reminiscent of films from the 1920\u2019s ala Cab Calloway or later Count Basie. On Invitation To Blues, beautiful purple, red and white lights were used to great effect. In addition to the standard spotlights, a grouping of lights were attached to a circular tube about 10 feet over Waits\u2019 head and even this rig was set at an angle to advance the expressionist feeling of the set.<\/p>\n

As for the stage\u2019s set it was quite unique with a collection of unusual vintage instruments but most noticeably a dozen or so horn speakers mounted from floor to ceiling in the center of the backdrop. Even the riser Waits stood on was rather ornate covered in brass, engraved with Moroccan sort of script.<\/p>\n

The outstanding song of the evening was a beautiful rendition of \u201cInnocent When You Dream\u201d. Waits brought the audience with him and created a sing along. It was like being in an Irish pub or German beer hall. The song\u2019s ending was very poignant and could have been a good way to end his main set before doing his encore.<\/p>\n

The full band returned to the stage to do an encore. The excellent three-song encore that followed included Waits whistling and concluded with \u201cTime\u201d on which Wait\u2019s classical guitar and an accordion mesh beautifully. Waits then said \u201cHey thank you and good night,\u201d acknowledges his band with a wave of his hand, takes a bow to the audience and walks off.<\/p>\n

Waits had commented that this was the first night of a long tour and indeed there were some opening night glitches. His gravel voice held out through the entire show until the last phrase he sung at which time he was holding his throat. During the song Get Behind The Mule his band wasn\u2019t following him and he looked at them and gave them a sign to slow the tempo. On \u201cChristmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis\u201d the bass player didn\u2019t jibe perfectly with Waits and Waits looked back at him to bring them in unison. This may have come about due to the security guard in the front row being on his walkie-talkie. Waits gave the guard a bit of a scolding. During another song a single old-fashioned light bulb was turned on, lowered just above Waits head while Waits tipped his bowler hat. But then the light went out for the rest of the song and sparks flew in the lighting rig. Also the ornate brass riser was adorned with small colored light bulbs but some of them weren\u2019t turned on.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless Waits lead his band like a conductor. All these opening night glitches were thoroughly overshadowed by a love for Waits by his audience. This appeared to be reciprocated by Waits. His continual banter with the audience was fun, funny and never \u2018too much.\u2019 He enjoyed getting the audience to clap along to at least one song and when there was a pregnant pause between songs Waits said to his band \u201cAnother one right away!\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, at one point during the show Waits, who years ago hung out in Phoenix, asked the audience \u201cDoes Van Buren St. still have all those affordable hotels?\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out it does and I stayed at one that night.<\/p>\n

JS<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/reviewermagazine.com\/tom-waits-show-review-page.html [show review] Tom Waits 6-17-08 (Tour\u2019s Opening Night) Orpheum Theatre Phoenix, AZ story and photos by Jim Steinfeldt Band: Tom Waits: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Megaphone Casey Waits: Drums Seth Ford-Young: Bass Omar Torrez: Guitar, Cigar Box Banjo Patrick Warren: Keyboards Vincent Henry: Sax, Clarinet, Harmonica \u201cWE CAN\u2019T KEEP TALKING LIKE THIS AT THESE PRICES.\u201d So spoke Mr. Waits and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[512],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-tom-waits-show-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":197,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/12\/06\/tom-waits-orphans-music-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":486,"position":0},"title":"Tom Waits ORPHANS music review","author":"admin","date":"December 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Tom Waits ORPHANS - Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards music review by James Sims Imagine stumbling into a barn in the middle of the night, and sitting there in a pile of gnarled farming equipment is a sooty-eyed, crazy old man. 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