Tom Waits : Glitter and Doom Live :: Review

As corny as this may sound, I have a personal holy trinity of rock and roll icons that I hold dear to my heart.  Those three that make up this group include three legendary performers who can do no wrong in my eyes.  This might not come as a surprise to the ten people who regularly read this site, but the three semi-flawless performers in this sacred grouping include Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Tom Waits.  The odd thing is as much as I adore Waits, I have never written much about him.  I’ve posted random videos here and there from him and I think I wrote something about the “Dime Store Novels” live recording about two years ago, but I have never officially written a review of his recorded output.  With the recent release of “Glitter and Doom Live,” I thought I should drop some comments about the album.

First off and as a side note, I attended one of the “Glitter and Doom” tour dates in Columbus, Ohio and I can honestly attest that this concert was a religious experience from start to finish.  Tom Waits performed a flawless set for more than two hours and a music geek couldn’t have asked for anything more other than tickets for the remainder of the shows.  Waits’ new album “Glitter and Doom Live” attempts to capture the feeling of these shows from the comfort of your couch.  The album is sequenced similarly to the set list of these shows and also includes a separate disc of Waitsian asides and stage banter.  The performances on this disc are flawless and the song range stretches back to his Island Records days.  This package would be absolutely perfect if it included video footage of Waits performing these songs but to this date, nothing that grand has been mentioned.

As much as it would seem that I’m on the Waits PR team, I can honestly say that this release has one glaring strike against it.  Do to my nerdy and obsessive nature; I can duly note that NPR released a free podcast of Waits’ “Glitter and Doom” July 5, 2008 stop in Atlanta, Georgia several months ago.  This podcast contains the entire two and a half hour performance in all of its cinematic glory.   To me, this recording is the definitive “Glitter and Doom” performance and puts the Anti release in the dust although the compilation of stage banter, “Tom’s Tales” is worth the price for the cd version.  Sadly, I don’t think this podcast is available anymore due to the release of the disc but those who have it can attest to its greatness.  Until there’s a new album out from Waits, I’ll keep both live souvenirs on heavy rotation.

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This post was submitted by greg.