If you missed Tom Waits' sold-out 2008 tour, this double CD is the next best thing to having been there. After listening to “Glitter and Doom Live,” you may want to get your tickets for his next tour way in advance.

The first CD features 17 live recordings from 10 nights on the road in 10 cities in the Unite States and Europe, including Paris, Milan and Dublin over the pond and Tulsa, Knoxville and Atlanta closer to home. Home for the reclusive Waits has been on the northwestern border of Marin and Sonoma counties for some years.

For someone who doesn't do many interviews, he's a marvelous storyteller. The second CD is 40 minutes of him holding forth with on-stage patter about such fascinating topics as hungry vultures,

Audio: Tom Waits - Lucinda/Ain't Goin Down

romantic spiders and captive elephants smart enough to fill the bells around their necks with mud.

If you had any doubts about whether or not Waits is a genius, both as a songwriter and performer, “Glitter and Doom” may very well dispel them. Without question, he's America's Kurt Weill.

The opening track — the freight train chug of “Lucinda” medlied with the feral growl of “Ain't Goin Down” — lets you know that this is Waits in top tour form and full grind-me-a-pound voice. He sounds like a blown transmission in one of the vintage Cadillacs in his videos. Speaking of which, there are some entertaining videos on his Web site (tomwaits.com), one of the best in music, including some

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videos from the “Glitter and Doom” tour.

The handsome fold-out CD package, from the Anti- label, includes a 20-page booklet of color photos of Waits working his on stage magic.

For his old school fans, “Glitter and Doom Live” is also being released on vinyl with a gatefold sleeve and live photos from the tour.

Buy It: “Glitter and Doom Live,” Tom Waits, Anti-, tomwaits.com; $13.99.

— Paul Liberatore

 

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