Tom Waits gig

Tom Waits

And in the final, very belated, blog of the trip to see Andrew and Alex's wedding, a review of the Tom Waits gig in Dublin.
We left Krakow and flew the deluxe flights of RyanAir to Dublin via Stansted (my God, what a horrendous airport). Bus to hostel which was reasonably close to the main street of Dublin, which for the moment, escapes me. And yeah I know I should know it. A shower then wandering to the gig at Phoenix Park. Phoenix Park, we had been informed, was a 25-30 min walk past such scenic highs as the Guinness factory. More on that later. And yes, it was a 25-30 min walk.
Unfortunately the gig was at the other end, and the Park is bloody massive.
We arrived at the gig around 8pm, picked up the tix, which I discovered back in NZ that having asked for them to be pickups at the gig, they'd posted. Idiots. The venue was a circus tent with a number of stalls around the sides. Exactly what you'd imagine a Tom gig to be. Our seats? Middle of the stage, 4 rows back, I love andrew.

The stage was set up as an old barn, odd instruments strewn everywhere, old speakers hung at the back, and small stage in the center - again strewn with oddities and detritus.
The band wandered on; sax, drums (tom's son), keys, guitar and bass. And then Tom arrived. A decrepid hobo, vaudeville in appearance, basking in applause, playing the crowd.
Kicking into the setlist, a shambling rambling old man, totally captivating the crowd. Not one word , this was an audience who wanted to be there, this was no London crowd.
In my view, a perfect setlist find one? with music from every 'era' of Tom's. The setlist may have been planned, but Tom's approach to gigging keeps the band on their toes - as Tom said after kicking of a song 'well, that could be any of them...'. Tom's better song banter, was excellent, although having heard the NPR gig (link here), it may not vary !!
Excellent section with Tom on piano and a bass player, including piano has been drinking.
What can I say? Atmospheric, dusty (placed on his stage, so stamping during songs produced a dust cloud), shuffling, oddly rhythmical with strange claps, whistles and stamping from the man, and possibly the best gig I've been too. Certainly in the top three. A spell-binding performance by a singularly unique performer, cult hero for over 30 years...

Yeah I liked it.

The weather turned to crap during the gig, it drizzled from Dublin airport to the city and on the wander to the gig. It was torrential rain on the walk down from the Park back into the city. We were soaked. Very soaked. To the point where we didn't have a beer, or indeed any drink. I would have popped into a pub if there'd been a nice one open - another 'minor' issue. And so, waking at 7 in order to catch the ferry across to Wales (as I was training back into London) I can say that:
I have spent 18 hours in Dublin, it was either drizzling or raining the entire time, and I didn't have a beer.

Yup.


Love and not so much travel this December, me xxx