Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Lucinda / Ain't Goin Down (Birmingham - 07/03/08)
2. Singapore (Edinburgh - 07/28/08)
3. Get Behind The Mule (Tulsa - 06/25/08)
4. Fannin Street (Knoxville - 06/29/08)
5. Dirt In The Ground (Milan - 07/19/08)
6. Such A Scream (Milan - 07/18/08)
7. Live Circus (Jacksonville - 07/01/08)
8. Goin' Out West (Tulsa - 06/25/08)
9. Falling Down (Paris - 07/25/08)
10. The Part You Throw Away (Edinburgh - 07/28/08)
11. Trampled Rose (Dublin - 08/01/08)
12. Metropolitan Glide (Knoxville - 6/29/08)
13. I'll Shoot The Moon (Paris - 07/24/08)
14. Green Grass (Edinburgh - 07/27/08)
15. Make It Rain (Atlanta - 07/05/08)
16. Story (Columbus - 06/28/08)
17. Lucky Day (Atlanta - 07/05/08)

Disc 2:

1. Tom Tales

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147 in Music
• Released on: 2009-11-23
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Double CD

CD Description
Recorded on his 2008 world tour, 'Glitter And Doom' presents live versions of some of Tom Waits' best loved material while the second disc features some of the California-born songwriter's onstage, spoken musings. While many of the tracks featured here are presented in reinvented form, Waits' gritty, down-at-heel vocal delivery remains intact throughout.

Customer Reviews

Misery's the river of the world. Everybody Row!
NPR in the US have a podcast of the Tom Waits Glitter and Doom tour. You can download it and have listen for two and a half hours. It's astonishing. From the opening track Tom Waits seems to haul himself out of the dark peaty earth, grab you by the collar and drag you down into a world of dark, grim realism with a voice which is more gravelly and lived in than I've ever heard it. The music is exquisite. Jazzy, bluesy, folky, gothic and uncompromising. The power of the performance is spell binding. As he has matured Tom Waits has created a music for himself which is miles from his early sound. This is musical theatre of Victorian shadows and fog. It's also very, very funny.

It's the finest live recording I've heard in years.

A man on top of his game
I saw the show in Dublin and it was the most spellbinding thing I have ever seen. His stage persona is massive that of an opera singer but his vocal range is far greater than most people think and this album demonstrates the fact. The backing band were excellent and it sounded like "electric sugar" at times. The first 8 tracks were made available free on line but the album contains many other gems and a bonus disc of Tom's tales (much of his between song banter during the tour). It does have some dark moments, however, I think there is more glitter than doom overall here. It contains some suprisingly uplifting moments with different and perhaps more coherent arrangements to some of the original songs and demonstrates how his older music still has relevance today when re-worked lovingly. Stand out vocal performances from Mr Waits throughout but never better than on Lucky Day.

Glitter And Doom
Glitter and Doom Live collects together songs from last year's tour of the same name. The track list was chosen by Tom Waits himself with the intention of making the disc sound like a complete show. This is where the problem lies for me - it never quite gels together. Each song individually is excellent; there is a mix of tracks from all of his Anti records as well as some tracks from Island, such as a revamped version of 'Singapore'. The band is in top form too, switching effortlessly between dirty blues on 'Lucinda' to strange polka and muted jazz. Despite this, it feels somewhat disjointed and set in one mood. There are notable omissions of songs that are regularly played live, such as 'Chocolate Jesus' or 'Jesus Gonna Be Here'. Yet the quality of the band and the songs doesn't make it feel like a live show. Even the best efforts of the mixer cannot cover up some of the jumps between track/venue (on at least two occasions there is a noticeable volume change) and the decision to remove Waits talking on the first disc leaves it feeling more like a compilation than a live show.

I found the inclusion of Tom's Tales a strange choice too. These shows were almost two hours long so it would have made more sense to include a second disc of live tracks. It is great to hear Tom talking, but it doesn't work as a stand-alone cd. Several jokes are repeated in slightly different form and I doubt I will listen to it again. The banter should have been left with the songs, as in the last two tracks on the first disc.

While we hear Waits in many of his guises - from circus ringmaster, balladeer and so on - these are only fleeting glimpses, and I feel that it is impossible to represent his live persona on a single disc, without any banter. It is by no means a bad album, only a little disappointing in its delivery, a missed opportunity really. For a better idea of his live shows, it is worth looking for NPR's broadcast of the July Atlanta show which is available for free. This has both a larger setlist, and improved performances of some of the songs on this album.