The Reason(s) We Can’t Stop Listening: Tom Waits turned 60 a couple weeks ago. That makes him the same age as most of our parents and the coolest AARP-carrying motherfucker on the planet. Not just in theory, either. As this live album proves, Waits is still rock’s reigning showman, whether he’s barking about a bottle-fed orangutan (“Circus Live”), reminding us that heaven’s full and hell’s boiling over (“Dirt In the Ground”), or riffing on Oklahoma’s ridiculous law book (according to “Tom’s Tales,” kissing a stranger and getting a fish drunk are one-way tickets to downtown).
RIYL: Mad hatters; black comedies; making up for missing 2008’s greatest tour
See Also:Something Old: Tom Waits, Nighthawks At the Diner (Elektra, 1975)
See Also:Something New: Tom Waits, Orphans (Anti-, 2006)
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