9:00am Friday 11th December 2009
By Nick Churchill
Barking like a raptor with laryngitis, but playing like an angel on the hard stuff, Waits has always made an intriguing, perplexing and thoroughly rewarding proposition in concert. This is the first time the intensity of his live shows has translated to disc as the audience belly laughs, hollers and claps along to propel the master fabulist as he stews blues, gospel, country and free-jazz to suit his visceral storylines.
No matter if he’s playing dice with the one-eyed dwarf on Fannin Street, or buying Henry Ford’s last breath as on Story’s sandpaper crackle, he kidnaps your attention and gives it a high old time.
The second disc, Tom Tales, collates some 40 minutes of Waitsian between-song musings on nature’s cruel vulture paradox and a host of silly one-liners.
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