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We need to go to Tennessee to pick up some fireworks, and someone owes me money in Kentucky.

A friend called the other night and casually mentions that Tom Waits was coming to Atlanta. We immediately went to Ticketmaster and found that seats were still available, an amazing thing considering that his shows notoriously sell out in a few seconds. Considering that tickets for the show at the Tabernacle were on sale since July 8th, I was amazed to find that as of the 25th of July that there were still seats left. M||3 and I eagerly grabbed two reserved seats in the balcony.

Tom Waits is someone that I’ve only come to appreciate late in life. I seemed to have missed his influence over years because of my younger progressive rock predilections. I do get some credit since back in high school, a friend of mine and I became altered and went to his movie Big Time at the Screening Room, a now long gone movie house off of Piedmont. I remember that I completely didn’t get it at the time. Still, as with all things of true merit, they come back to you. I can’t say that I know all the albums of Tom that I probably should know, but I can cry to ‘Martha’ like the rest of you so I deserve a little credit.

We got down to Luckie St. to see a line wrapping around the entire venue. Come to find out that this was a symptom of the ‘will call’ status of the tickets. We did our time in line and played ‘recognize the Athenian’ for the better part of an hour before we actually picked up our tickets, which was much later than the broadcast 8pm show time.

Once inside it was a bit of a madhouse. I think the tension of having to wait so long to get into the venue was affecting my brain. We quickly grabbed a couple of beers and headed to our seating. Balcony was the place to be, as far as I’m concerned, because when I stumbled into the main area of the venue, I was almost dizzy looking down that the sea of the general admission crowd down below. We took our seats at second row stage left and were blessed that no one was right in front of us. We may have not have the perfect sound mix that people in front have had, but we had the most perfect view of the show about to transpire below us.

Not that it wasn’t apparent before, but once Tom came out, it was ever more obvious that everyone there was so damn glad to see him. We suffered from a little bit of dull sound from not being in the mix line, but the view that M||3 and I had completely made up for that. At one point they pulled out a piano for him to play and we benefitted from the luck of him facing our side of the state. He might as well have been playing to us.

One of the most interesting things was that he made commentary about the long wait to get into the venue. He joked about how he sympathized with everyone having to stand in line for so long, but that it was better than spending $1500 on eBay for a ticket. This realization that he was concerned about his fans enough to make sure that they would have a shot at tickets just gave me another respect point for him, not that he really needed it.

Tom Waits and his bands performance was incredible. Since I’m a little shy on his complete discography, I was left a little unknown at some songs. I also felt that at times it was a little sloppy, but I could care less. He was delivering something that was akin to a historical event, and we loved every minute of it.

Set list (unconfirmed):

• Make It Rain
• Hoist that Rag
• Shore Leave
• God’s Away on Business
• November
• ‘Til the Money Runs Out
• Blue Valentine
• Lucky Day
• Tango til they’re Sore
• House Where Nobody Lives
• Don’t Go into that Barn
• (Lie to Me, Baby)
• Whislin’ Past the Graveyard
• 9th & Hennepin
• Trampled Rose
• Get Behind the Mule
• Murder in the Red Barn
• Shake It
• Singapore
• Goin’ Out West
• Day After Tomorrow
• Heartattack & Vine

Setlist from The Eyeball Kid and Photos by Robb Cohen via Access Atlanta.