On the 9:30 Club website:

"The Official Birthday Party for the Godfather of Go-Go"

All that I saw was "The Official Birthday Party" and immediately Nick Cave popped into my head, and I got butterflies in my stomach, and then all in that one second I realized it was too good to be true and read the rest of the sentence.

That sucks.

Plus, it would have said "The Birthday Party"

Oh well, has anyone seen Nick Cave live? Make me jealous with your stories, if so.

Also, even though I know a lot of you on the board believe Tom Waits is very overrated, I heard he may be touring this coming fall when his children are back in school. How nice would that be? Very, very nice indeed.

i think Tom Waits is infinitely more entertaining live than on record. and infinitely X 234 more expensive.

hmmm, i always thought Tom Waits came over well on record.

CHUCK BROWN

I never liked go-go, but a couple weeks ago I had the windows down and some 45 minute go-go song on WPGC rocking while driving aimlessly on a Saturday night.

hey I know, my eyes were fixated on the words "Birthday Party" right when I saw it.

I'd pay any amount of money to see Tom Waits... i'd pay just about the same to catch Nick Cave.

for me he does in a lot of places, but a lot if the production (i.e. "let's scrape a nail against that rusty carburetor in my yard for percussion!") really grates my nerves after awhile. It's good some of the time, but after awhile i feel like he's doing it just to de-streamline the sound of his records. Obviously this is my opinion, but i think it's been a pretty steady decline since Rain Dogs. There are great moments on his albums since then, but nothing to sway me into liking any of it more than his previous work.

Live (or at least with the radio shows/concerts i've heard) he tends to have a lot more charisma and ranks among the top 5 stage banterers of all time. Also, it's hard to drag said carburetor around the country with him. or marc ribot.

i couldn't agree more with your take on his decline after raindogs. I am a swordfish trombone-raindogs-the heart of sat. night-man my self.

I do agree with what the both of you are saying, considering Rain Dogs is my favorite album of his, and my favorite album in general, and I absolutely love The Heart of Saturday Night. I love his pre-1985 stuff, but Franks Wild Years came out in 87 and I don't think there's anything wrong with that album either. I don't understand why everyone thinks Foreign Affairs is his worst album because it's absolutely wonderful to me. I do think most of his more modern material sort of blends together though. Real Gone wasn't a disappointment at all, but it wasn't Waits' at his best either. I adore Alice, and I like Blood Money a whole lot, but Real Gone and Mule Variations only have 5 or so tracks that really grab me. Mule Variations is probably my least favorite Tom Waits album next to Closing Time, but I do love some songs off of it, such as "What's He Building In There","Big In Japan" and "Black Market Baby" etc. It's just not an epic album, but there are points in each of his albums, and I honeslty mean every single album of his, that are incredible. He's just taking a different direction with his music. obviously..

Blood Money was actually the first Tom Waits album I ever picked up. and I hated him when I first heard him. I just had a craving, I suppose, for something new and different than what I had been listening to.

I would kill to see him live. and meet him.