is tom waits worth seeing live??

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tickets go on sale today for his show in london later this year but im not sure if its worth it.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:17 (twenty years ago)

Hang about King's Cross Station, pretty soon some incontinent old drunk will start warbling tunelessly - hey presto, it's a Tom Waits' gig!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:21 (twenty years ago)

can i get a link to this please. i wouldn't mind seeing him live.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:23 (twenty years ago)

its at hammersmith apollo.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:28 (twenty years ago)

hmmm... well i think i'll go if i can afford it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:33 (twenty years ago)

its 28.50!

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:35 (twenty years ago)

criminy! maybe not then. shit you'd think tom waits would be able to smarten himself up a bit if that's how much he's getting.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:39 (twenty years ago)

Where are tickets going on sale? Couldn't find any word online, just
this...

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:50 (twenty years ago)

still thinking i might go as a treat - i don't get to go to gigs so often. anyone else interested?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:54 (twenty years ago)

I think it goes on sale NEXT friday... it's the first time he's played the uk in what 13 years???
of course I'm going...

― simon 803 (simon 803), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:57 (twenty years ago)

im going to go. never seen him live and would love to check him out before he becomes even more croaky.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:02 (twenty years ago)

i want to go but i can only think of one mate who'd want to join me and he's skint these days. tom waits fap anyone?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:03 (twenty years ago)

i might go to this, i have to check whether i will be in london that time though, it may not be the case

― david acid (gareth), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:12 (twenty years ago)

Hell yes, if you have the cash. At the very least Tom Waits tours very rarely, unlike most bands, so seeing him is always somewhat special.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Friday, 3 September 2004 12:52 (twenty years ago)

No. Tom Waits live is absolute rubbish. Under no circumstances should any of you even consider going to see him.

(the guy's playing 1 UK gig, the first he's played here for 17 years; so if I can somehow manage to discourage a few people from wanting to go, then that has to reduce demand and therefore increase my chances of getting a ticket.... right?)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:02 (twenty years ago)

OMG WTF IS HE GOING TO PLAY ANYWHERE IN THE STATES!?!?!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:54 (twenty years ago)

Rent Big Time and decide if it's worth it.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:01 (twenty years ago)

Some of us are considering coming to London from NY. Does that answer your question?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago)

He's playing three dates in Berlin and only one in London - if you must come to Europe, go to Berlin instead!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:19 (twenty years ago)

i'm going to see him in berlin. it's very exciting. i think he's also planning to play amsterdam. he was supposed to play more than one date in london at a different and exciting venue but it all fell through cos of cold hard cash.

― Peter Watts (peterw), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:43 (twenty years ago)

When I saw him a long time ago live in Washington D.C. I recall he had a streetlamp onstage and he walked under the light, with his porkpie hat on and his jacket over his shoulder--looking part Frank Sinatra, part drunken old blues guy...

I enjoyed it-shtick or not...

― steve-k, Saturday, 4 September 2004 18:17 (twenty years ago)

Tom Waits is amazing live. Do not hesitate to go.

― bugged out, Saturday, 4 September 2004 18:20 (twenty years ago)

A number of us were planning on attending the LA shows a few years back...but then the ticket prices were announced and we cried.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 September 2004 18:24 (twenty years ago)

Saw him at the Beacon in NYC...fantastic...a total actor!

― shookout (shookout), Saturday, 4 September 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Big Time is insanely out of print, I've been trying to snag it on ebay for two years but I draw the line at $50.00 for a vhs tape.

― tremendoid, Saturday, 4 September 2004 19:02 (twenty years ago)

£70 quid?!?!?

http://www.stargreen.com/events?artist=TOM_WAITS#7712

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 10 September 2004 04:59 (twenty years ago)

SOLD OUT!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:06 (twenty years ago)

I snagged two tickets.

i'm so exited i might even watch mystery men.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:09 (twenty years ago)

!!! anyone get tickets? i couldn't even get throught to the website...

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:09 (twenty years ago)

his new album is so great

― big chaki (chaki), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:10 (twenty years ago)

Hang about King's Cross Station, pretty soon some incontinent old drunk will start warbling tunelessly - hey presto, it's a Tom Waits' gig!
-- Dadaismus (kcoyne3...), September 3rd, 2004.

that's funny because its true.

― doomie x, Friday, 10 September 2004 08:13 (twenty years ago)

"Big Time is insanely out of print, I've been trying to snag it on ebay for two years but I draw the line at $50.00 for a vhs tape."

You can get it on DVD for $29.99 + P&P here.

The quality's not great but it's better than nothing.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:21 (twenty years ago)

xpost

That's funny in the light of him getting a gig out of the remake of Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' blood never failed me yet". Otherwise, not funny.

― Edmundo (Edmundo), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:27 (twenty years ago)

Why doesn't he play 5 nights at Hammersmith, doesn't he realise that there a ton of people who want to see him? If I don't get tickets I'm going to be really fucking annoyed.

― mzui, Friday, 10 September 2004 11:32 (twenty years ago)

You aren't going to get tickets.

Well, not for Hammersmith anyway.

Well, not without paying wildly over the (already huge) face value.

Please feel free to get fucking annoyed.

I've got mine so I don't care - in fact I'm planning to spend this entire weekend basking in the warm tingling glow of smug self-satisfied total bastardness.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:35 (twenty years ago)

OMG. the prices on ebay are ridiculous.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16067&item=2269008240&rd=1

and thats one of the cheaper ones.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:40 (twenty years ago)

i hope he announces another date.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:48 (twenty years ago)

Beverley Knight's at the Apollo the following night - there ain't gonna be no more dates.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:51 (twenty years ago)

If he doesn't do an American tour, you are all going to pay dearly.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:52 (twenty years ago)

Oh he's always doing American tours (relatively speaking, of course) - why, he did a huge American tour to promote Mule Variations a mere 5 years ago!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:56 (twenty years ago)

Just off the phone to my girlfriend, she spent 3 straight hours this morning with her mobile on repeat, just hitting the ticket number again and again, did she get through? Did she fuck. I'm now fucking extremely cranky. What do you have to do to get to see Waits live? Send blood? Limbs?
Anyhow, when was the last time he played London, was it the Dominion in 1986?

― mzui, Friday, 10 September 2004 12:28 (twenty years ago)

They actually sold out within an hour.

There were three of us - me, my mate Graham (of http://www.beefheart.com fame) and my gf - all trying constantly from about 8:55 with three phones, 2 mobiles and 2 internet connections between us, trying two different phone numbers and two different websites (TicketMaster and Stargreen - although the Stargreen one collapsed within seconds and wasn't back on-line until after they'd sold out) to get 6 tickets.

My mate got through on the Ticketmaster website after about 20 minutes and got one pair (they were only seeling them in pairs) and I got through, also on the internet, at about 9:50.

I think it's fair to say that demand for tickets was somewhat higher than supply.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago)

it would take a month of gigs to satisfy demand!

it says here :

http://www.nme.com/news/109829.htm

sounds worse than the pixies and that's sayin something

― piscesboy, Friday, 10 September 2004 12:45 (twenty years ago)

i got through straight away at 10 to 9.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Friday, 10 September 2004 12:46 (twenty years ago)

Call me naive, but I can't believe the amount of scumbags selling tix for this on Ebay now. I hope their balls fester.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 10 September 2004 12:52 (twenty years ago)

"i got through straight away at 10 to 9."

I tried about 10 to 9 and got a recorded message. I tried again at 5 to it was engaged - and it stayed engaged from then on!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:00 (twenty years ago)

if it turned out i couldn't go i'd sell my ticket for the amount i got it for to a fan, not on ebay.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:01 (twenty years ago)

so much for the days of queuing outside all night for things.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:02 (twenty years ago)

osbourne, you are a wicked, vindictive man.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:13 (twenty years ago)

I resent that - I'm not vindictive....

Smugly self-satisfied yes but not vindictive.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:17 (twenty years ago)

you are really lucky though! i just saw an ad for the show in the independent which was annoying.

oh well, at least i have a ticket for morrissey in december at earls court.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 13:19 (twenty years ago)

Couldn't get through, nor could two friends who were trying on my behalf. If anyone ends up with spares that they want to go to a real fan, think of me...

― Mog, Monday, 13 September 2004 08:21 (twenty years ago)

theyre on ebay starting at about 400 quid.

― splooge (thesplooge), Monday, 13 September 2004 08:50 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone heard about North American shows? His show in Vancouver on October 15 is already on sale, but I can't find info on any other shows.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:06 (twenty years ago)

TOM WAITS ON LETTERMAN TONIGHT

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 05:03 (twenty years ago)

OMG this is good. what does he play, east-coasters already having viewed the show?

― {Sand in the [vaseline} on the lens] (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 05:36 (twenty years ago)

hahaha Dave is interviewing him now and he's fuckin funny as hell

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 06:14 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

is anybody else going on tuesday?

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I thought I might, seeing as I've paid for the tickets and all; it would seem a bit silly not to really.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 19 November 2004 19:16 (twenty years ago)

"Is Tom Waits worth seeing live?"

Based on last night, an unequivocal yes - absolutely fantastic; a very close call between that one and Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE for gig of the year for me.

Only four songs were pre-90's IIRC (including Invitation To The Blues when they wheeled the piano out for the encore) but they were all sensational: Sins Of The Father; Trampled Rose; November; Hoist That Rag; Shake It; Day After Tomorrow; Eyeball Kid; Come On Up To The House; House Where Nobody Lives; Alice; Johnsburg Ilinois; Straight To The Top - and some of the between song chat was hilarious!

Who else was there? What did you think?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 11:46 (twenty years ago)

I went, it was fantastic!

he is a funny guy. I was wondering how Real Gone would sound like live, Waits did a really good job on the vocals from that album (and noises). "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" was great and "Alice".

It was a really eclectic mix of people there too. Very enjoyable all round.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 15:07 (twenty years ago)

I hate you both!

― adam... (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 16:13 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nme.com/news/110636.htm

NME seems to just care about which stars 'flocked' to see him.

Thom Yorke, Matt Bellamy, Dude from Elbow, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Wednesday, 24 November 2004 22:36 (twenty years ago)

Fwiw I saw Phil Jupitus as we were leaving.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 25 November 2004 13:07 (twenty years ago)

yeah i saw somebody giving autographs and i recognised them but couldn't recall a name.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Thursday, 25 November 2004 15:04 (twenty years ago)

does the pope wear a funny hat?
is seinfeld funnier than frasier?

he is not only worth seeing live, it's an experience for life. go.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Thursday, 25 November 2004 15:11 (twenty years ago)

We did. It was two days ago. The grin hasn't even started to fade yet.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 25 November 2004 15:13 (twenty years ago)

well there you go. saw him in stockholm five years ago. one of the best shows i ever saw, if not the best.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Thursday, 25 November 2004 15:14 (twenty years ago)

i keep just seeing the image of Tom Waits coming onstage to the loudest applause i've ever heard and making a weird gesture that looked like squeezing the boobies of a ghost.

it was amazing.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Thursday, 25 November 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago)

haha!

but also, as adam said, I HATE YOU ALL :(

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 25 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

I went, it was great! I also wore my pork-pie hat - AND HAD AN ASS FLASK OF WHISKEY! AND WENT TO THE ALL NITE DINER AFTERWARD SMOKING LUCKY STRIKE CIGARETTES.

You guys are fags.

― Harry Chrishna, Friday, 26 November 2004 05:55 (twenty years ago)

I point you towards Tom Waits' output of the last 20 years, which you obviously haven't heard.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Friday, 26 November 2004 06:09 (twenty years ago)

there were a lot of fedoras and goatees at the show I went to

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Friday, 26 November 2004 06:37 (twenty years ago)

See cool ass legends while they're still alive, fuckas.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Friday, 26 November 2004 06:40 (twenty years ago)

I had tickets to see Screamin Jay Hawkins...but he died. I am sad to this day.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Friday, 26 November 2004 06:43 (twenty years ago)

That said...Tom Waits is only in his 50s!!!

― adam... (nordicskilla), Friday, 26 November 2004 06:43 (twenty years ago)

I AM SO JEALOUS OF THOSE WHO SAW THIS!!!!!!!

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 26 November 2004 09:40 (twenty years ago)

nineteen years pass...

I forget which Tom Waits thread was most recently active, so let's make it this one, because I came across this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1yQ1J7NpyM

https://www.openculture.com/2024/01/a-fan-made-film-reconstructs-an-entire-tom-waits-concert-from-his-glitter-and-doom-tour-2008.html

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 27 January 2024 13:26 (one year ago)

I count myself very lucky to have seen him in Atlanta in 2006. Along with Prince's last public performance and Leonard Cohen's last gig in Atlanta, it's something I would have regretted missing for the rest of my life. And yeah, he's very much worth seeing--not sure that he'll ever tour again.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 27 January 2024 20:36 (one year ago)

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