TOM WAITS : AT THE CIRKUS

 

Disc One (78:34)

  1. Lucky Day overture / step Right Up
  2. black rider
  3. jockey full of bourbon
  4. jesus gonna be here
  5. get behind the mule
  6. walk away
  7. chocolate jesus
  8. hold on
  9. eyeball kid
  10. what's he building
  11. a little rain
  12. invitation to the blues
  13. hang down your head
  14. tango till they are sore
  15. innocent when you dream
  16. 16 shells from a thirty-Ought six

Disc Two (78:30)

  1. shore leave
  2. pony
  3. filipino box spring hog
  4. come on up to the house
  5. house where nobody lives
  6. singapore
  7. the heart of saturday night
    Bonus Tracks :
  8. goin' out west
  9. i can't wait to get off work
  10. picture in a frame
  11. who are you
  12. heartattack and wine
  13. time
  14. chocolate jesus

Label : Crystal Cat Records

Venue : Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden
Date : July 14, 1999
Quality : Audience Recording (A+)

Review (Collectors Music Reviews) : This release is excellent! Tom Waits meets Crystal Cat, nuff said. This was Tom Waits' first full tour since 1987. For 12 years he only played an occasional benefit show. Thankfully he returned in full force as if he never missed a beat. This tour was in support of the excellent Mule Variations album. This was the seventh show of the tour, and only the second in Europe (the first European show was the night before at the Cirkus heard in the bonus tracks) so it is still early on and everyone sounds fresh and vibrant. The sound quality is a gorgeous 10 out of 10, the balance between instruments is perfect. Keyboards snake through all this percussion like an asp then suddenly crisp guitars rise from nowhere like a phoenix. This music at times can be like a carnival of sounds, and sometimes it is delicate and calm. Crystal Cat do an excellent job of balancing the sounds(especially the vocals), and there is a definite audience presence as well which adds a warmth and reminds us this is a concert. Anyone who collects Crystal Cats knows what I mean. There is a reason they say "collect 'em all". The packaging is beautiful typical Crystal Cat booklet with a nice article and great photos. The performance is outstanding. About half of the material is from Mule Variations, and the rest is fairly career spanning with material from Rain Dogs, Swordfishtrombones, Small Change, and others. The between song stories are very amusing, some examples: Before "Get Behind the Mule" Tom says "before people wrote songs about automobiles they wrote songs about the original automobile, the mule"; before "What's He Building?" he says "My neighbor's name is Cunningham, I wonder if you're a ham you weren't very cunning", and at one time he asks the audience "Should I play a new one or an old one?" the audience of course responds "an old one" Waits replies "You Bastards!" The whole set is full of these sorts of exchanges between Waits and the audience. Over all it is very entertaining and shows how loose of an atmosphere exists at Tom Waits' concerts. The highlights are too many to list, all the songs are performed with great passion. The new material from Mule Variations is outstanding. "Get Behind The Mule", "Come on Up To The House" and the beautifully poignant "Hold On" are a few. The ever creepy "What's He Building In There?" and the classic "Invitation To The Blues" are wonderful. The Band: Smokey Hormel - guitar; Larry Taylor - bass; Barry McGough - keyboards; and Andrew Borger - drums/percussion execute this material perfectly. Their music is the perfect compliment to Tom Waits storytelling. The liner notes of this disc say it all: "Tom Waits - What an Entertainer!" I consider this the best Tom Waits cd in my collection, Highly Recommended!