MOG

I have to re post these thoughts on one of the last concerts I attended. I write this disclaimer that there possibly is not a bigger Tom Waits fan than I. I own every album, many bootlegs, and have had the good fortune to see him in concert twice. This was posted as more of a reply to many of the salivating fanboys on another blog:
I have to say I was a little disappointed - only because I have had the fortune to see Mr. Waits once before - in Florence, Italy in 1999 (this concert was at the time, a spiritual experience). Seeing Tom Waits in an opera house with great seats for what I paid to stand in a hot sweaty crowd, would naturally be a better experience.
I have to say I admire the attempt to avoid the tickets getting sold to scalpers and ticket agencies, but to expect people to stand in line on a Tuesday in which the heat index was 105 degrees, was a bit unfortunate, the whole entrance process could have been run much smoother.
As for the music, I was impressed to see Tom keeping it in the family, with his son Casey, taking reign of the drum set. In '99 he came out on for a ripping version of "Big in Japan" (at 15 years old!). I liked the set up on the Mule Variations tour better, there was a little more stage presence and Tom used a "shuffle box" (for lack of a better name, a sort of sand box that I believe is used by tap dancers) that he stood on and stomped out a lot of the rhythm to each song.
The instrument set up felt a little more paired down for this tour, and not as tight as earlier. The looseness was nice since it gave it a sort of playing in the garage feel, but "Mule" tour seemed to have a real vaudeville /entertainment feel that just made the performance more complete. There were some nice gems and re-workings of classics ("Blue Valentines", "Heart Attack") but too much "Real Gone" material. I have everything Tom Waits has recorded and feel that "Real Gone" is at most, an average album. There are some great tracks, but it drags a bit, and the sequencing of tracks is horrible, and never feels like it gets to where it should be conceptually. I love the paired down nature of this album and how he used a sampler, unfortunately the album falls in some of the pitfalls Waits has created for himself as a songwriter, and some of the songs just feel a little too forced. I do love the fact that Marc Ribot is once again reunited with Tom, and only wish he could have toured with Mr. Waits for these concerts.
Why oh why can they not add chairs to a Tom Waits concert. There is absolutely no reason to dance at a Tom Waits concert (unless your partner is Jim Beam)? I'm a mature adult that would love to sit down and enjoy what Mr. Waits has to offer, but not while people pour in and out of the crowd, spilling their drinks on me, while I'm standing asshole to belly button with the rest of the group. I would have had seats too, thank you very much ticket bastard, had the online ticketing system not been messed up for 23 minutes offering me only international will call when I wanted to check out with my seats. After 23 minutes of cursing my computer, my wife, and ticketmaster, I took what I could get.
Any chance I get to see Tom Waits is great, and it probably would have been magical if I didn't have such a great first Tom Waits concert experience.

Obviously many people in the blogosphere don't agree with me about this concert, and Blender seems to think Real Gone is possibly the best album to date. Waits will stand as one of the greatest living American songwriters, so what does how an album fares really matter anyway?