Tom Waits - Part 2: Cleveland House of Blues 8/13/06

Sweet, Mother! Maybe I'm insane or merely a gluton, one thing for sure is I am so damn lucky. After a 6 hour drive from Chicago to Cleveland, 2 hours waiting in line outside the House of Blues on 4th and Euclid, then another hour and a half wait inside the general admission venue, where my friends and I laid claim to an area within arms length of the stage, Tom Waits came to the stage to deliver probably one of the best sets of this entire Orphans Tour. Just to be so close in such an intimate venue was pure poetry, you could truly appreciate every nuanced gesture, expression, and facial contortion that Waits contrives as he performs. I wanted to take tons of awesome pictures, but there was a strict no camera policy and all I had was my dinky camera phone, therefore no real worthy shots were taken (see above).

There were a few amusing and endearing moments that will be forever etched in my mind, first the rain of glitter confetti that Waits pulled out of suit jacket pocket and arched over his head in time with the music, the beatnick poses he would strike after the end of some songs, and words of wisdom that he imparted, "The only thing better than roses on your piano, is tulips on your organ" and his banter on about how bowling shoes freak him out, "all the bacteria in those shoes. It's like renting underwear...no, it is renting underwear."

I do not believe I could have dreamed up a better experience, Jim Jarmusch was sitting the balcony overhead, the sound quality was pristine, the set list featured alot of my favorites I didn't hear in Chicago, ie. "November", "Blue Valentine", "Cemetary Polka", and "Heart Attack & Vine, along with a list of songs he hasn't performed live in quite some time like "On The Nickel." I have to mention that "Singapore" and "Make It Rain", were even better the second time around, there is heightened sense of reality and appreciation when you are in spitting distant of a music legend. From the minute he hit the stage to afterward in the car ride back, there was a permanent smile plastered to my face, hands down one of the greatest concert experiences of my life.


Setlist:

Goin' Out West
219 (My Baby's Leaving On The)
Way Down in the Hole
November
Blue Valentine
Big Black Mariah
On the Nickel
Cemetery Polka
I Wish I was in New Orleans
Johnsburg, Illinois
Metropolitan Glide
Heartattack & Vine / Spoonful
Make it Rain
Circus
Singapore
It Rains on Me

Encore 1:
Don't Go Into that Barn
Ramblin' Man

Encore 2:
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Buzz Fledderjohn