For anybody jealous of the P2 SXSW types, this was the event of the event,
and I didn't hear about any of us getting in for it. Step up and testify if
you did...
Tom Waits Previews New
Album In Rare Show
Troubadour's concert was hottest ticket at South by
Southwest.
Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:
AUSTIN, Texas -- "Where you been, Tom?" a woman yelled
near the end of Tom Waits' two-hour show at the Paramount
Theater in the early morning hours Sunday.
The grizzled singer tilted his head and croaked, "I been in
traffic school. I had a lot of tickets. It adds up,
believe me."
Waits then joked about getting a degree in parallel
parking and got back to work, bowing his
head down by his knees and smacking his hands together to
count off one of his newer tunes,
"Hold On."
Every year the South by Southwest Music Conference, an
annual confab of music business
professionals and young bands, produces a bona-fide
must-see show. Last year, it was a rare
club gig by guitar terrorists Sonic Youth; this year,
troubadour Waits upped the ante with one
of his only live performances of this decade.
Dressed in a dark denim jacket and pants, a
white undershirt and crumpled
brown fedora, the raspy-voiced singer was
his quintessential, nonchalant self
during the show, during which he dipped into
his catalog of gut-bucket blues
and Tin Pin Alley-like ballads and previewed
three songs from his upcoming
Epitaph Records debut, Mule Variations (due
April 27).
Hundreds of fans, some of whom you might
have heard of, lined up outside
the ornate old theater on Congress Avenue as
early as 4:30 a.m. Saturday
hoping to score one of South by Southwest's
hottest tickets.
At the front of the line was 28-year-old
Shane Carbonneau, of Austin, who
said he had to literally beg, borrow and lie
to get in. "I had to borrow my
friend's [festival] badge, sneak into the
convention center and tell a really
elaborate story to get this ticket," Carbonneau said.
Waiting behind Carbonneau on the cold concrete was Mark
Linkous, frontman of the
experimental Virginia rock band Sparklehorse. "I'm a huge
fan of Tom," Linkous said. "I'm
really looking forward to this."
Linkous did, it should be noted, have more than the usual
fan interest in the show. He said he
was anxious to meet up with Waits later, hoping to
determine that the troubadour had
completed recording his part for a song on Sparklehorse's
next album.
Waits took the stage just after midnight, waltzing to the
microphone as if he'd always been
there. He kicked his left leg like a mule and gripped the
microphone stand with both hands as
if trying to choke it.
Accompanied by a four-piece band that included Beck
guitarist Smokey Hormel, Waits
charmed the rapt audience with such chestnuts as the
clattering "16 Shells From a
Thirty-Ought Six" (RealAudio excerpt) (from 1983's
Swordfishtrombones) and the tender
ballad "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night" (from
1974's The Heart of Saturday Night).
Although the show was packed with such whoop-inducing
Waits staples as "Downtown
Train," "Temptation" and "Heart Attack and Vine," the
centerpiece of the show was the new
"Filipino Box Spring Hog," a foot-stomping number from
Mule Variations.
Waits started the song by squeezing out a ragged, a
cappella howl; Hormel slowly weaved his
way in with a subtle wah-wah guitar accompaniment. On
Waits' order, drummer Stephen
Hodges leapt into the mix with a booming, hip-hop-like
backbeat, giving the ragged number
the feel of a gritty front-porch blues jam.
Grinding out his vocals in his trademark throaty bellow,
Waits did his best James Brown
imitation near song's end, suddenly pointing to random
band members to give them the
spotlight. The instant crowd favorite ended with Waits
telescoping a spectral, far-away voice
through his cupped hands.
Almost as entertaining as the songs were Waits'
between-song meanderings and asides.
He bided his time between
