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Tim Smith's Collection

Tom Waits   09/25/1999

Beacon Theater, New York, NY
Source AUD: Neumann KM-140s -> Sonosax -> Sony D8
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Media flac16
Notes Tom Waits
Beacon Theatre
New York, NY
9/25/1999

Original recording: Neumann KM-140s -> Sonosax -> Sony D8 (master @16/48)

DAT playback: Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48)

Mastered: Soundforge Pro 11.0 - *All file manipulation in Soundforge done at 24 bits*. Volume normalization, Sample rate conversion 48khz to 44.1khz using iZotope 64-Bit SRC set higher than "Highest Quality" setting w/anti-alias filter. Then dithered to 16 bits using using iZotope MBIT+ with Ultra noise shaping, with high dither settings, extreme clap scrubbing / targeted EQ to reduce whistles and banshee-like yells / boosting music while lowering crowd between songs. Tracked in CDWav. Tagged in Tag&Rename 3.8 RC1

1. The Black Rider
2. Jockey Full of Bourbon
3. Jesus Gonna Be Here
4. In the Colosseum
5. (Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night
6. Get Behind the Mule
7. banter - intro to Chocolate Jesus
8. Chocolate Jesus
9. Down, Down, Down
10. banter - intro to Hold On
11. Hold On
12. Step Right Up/Eyeball Kid
13. Tango Till They're Sore
14. banter - leeches
15. A Little Rain
16. banter - Uncle Eddie
17. Cemetery Polka
18. Invitation to the Blues
19. banter - creamed
20. The Briar and the Rose
21. Innocent When You Dream
22. 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six
23. Gun Street Girl
24. Who Are You
25. Straight to the Top (Rhumba)
26. I'll Shoot the Moon
27. banter - something about food
28. Filipino Box Spring Hog
29. encore break
30. What's He Building?
31. Heartattack and Vine
32. Jersey Girl
33. encore break 2
34. House Where Nobody Lives
35. Take It With Me


Smokey Hormel - guitar
Danny McGough - keyboard
Andrew Borger - percussion
Larry Taylor - bass / guitar

Taper notes:
I scrubbed COUNTLESS claps, banshee-like screams, and whistles from every song in this recording. Note that track 1 was (I believe) sung through a megaphone - NOT into the PA microphones, and sounds really distant/bad. Please don't judge the sound of this recording based upon that one track, give it a bit. Also, it took a tremendous amount of mastering work to tease the really really good recording you have in your hands from the original master tape which suffered from the major problem of a mostly semi-quiet concert and extremely LOUD / boisterous NYC audience. I painstakingly raised the level of each song while keeping the clapping between songs at its original level or sometimes reducing its volume. Also, some of the nearby yells from the crowd were many decibels louder than the music, so I used some spectrum analysis and notch EQs to analyze and reduce the presence of every individual yell, whistle, etc. Sometimes they removed very cleanly and other times not as much, but either way they should be far less present/distracting now! Also note that this is still far from perfect, but it's the best I can do (in fact, it's a good thing I waited until I completed 162 other BARN series releases because I have picked up a lot of mastering tricks over the years, so this is a lot better now than it would have been a few years ago...)

So, after a ton of work and nearly 15 years after this concert performance by a legendary performer who rarely tours anymore, I am extremely proud to present to all music aficionados my never previously circulated (and heard by almost nobody until now) recording of Tom Waits from the 3rd night of his run at the Beacon Theatre in NYC in 1999 as BARN163. Tom, as far as I know, has never allowed open taping, so while I have no recollection at all of how I came to posess this rare and coveted ticket (and attend the show solo), I made sure to borrow some "stealth" recording gear from a good buddy -- as my large diaphragm Neumanns that I usually use are decidedly quite the opposite of stealthy and very conspicuous.

This was a mesmirising show, with Tom mixing in a great selection of tunes from his then-current (and amazing) "Mule Variations" album ("Get Behind The Mule", "Chocolate Jesus", "Hold On", "What's He Building", "House Where Nobody Lives") with some of his most well known / all time classics ("Jersey Girl, "Jockey Full Of Bourbon", "(Looking For The Heart Of) Saturday Night", "Heart Attack And Vine"). He was quite the showman, at one point donning a disco ball hat that got lasers bounced off of it, at another point making confetting (or something similar) come out of his hat, and doing some occasional parlor tricks onstage. The music here ranges from poignant, touching ballads that will break your heart ("Hold On", "Innocent When You Dream", "House Where Nobody Lives") to all rockers ("Filipino Box Spring Hog", "16 Shells...", "Chocolate Jesus", "Heart Attack And Vine" and others) with some vaudville-inspired songs sprinkled throughout. His onstage banter remains as sardonic as ever...for example, as he explains his inspiration behind the song "Chocolate Jesus". The song "What's He Building" deserves special mention as this one manages to evoke a David Lynchian (or maybe horror movie-like) psychodrama onstage. His backing band is a-one perfect, matching Tom move-for-move, and features Smokey Hormel on guitar (who many of you know from his work with Beck, Norah Jones, Joe Strummer etc.), and on drums/percussion, Andrew Borger who is now a part of Marco Benevento's trio.

This is the only time I've ever seen Tom Waits live as he tours so very infrequently and does not hit NYC most of the time, even when he does.

Anyway, I put a lot of work and love into making this recording as good as can be, and I hope you all appreciate it. I guarantee that even if other sources for this show exist, none of them are going to sound THIS good!

Enjoy!!!

Recorded, transferred, mastered, tracked, tagged, and posted by Scott Bernstein

Special thanks to The Vanilla Genius for hooking me up with the loaner gear!

DAT Transfer: 11/28/2011
Mastering, tagging, and posting: 5/18-22/2014
Trades Allowed Yes
Ratings Sound: 9
Reference / Generation 07-08
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Owned by Tim Smith · Last Updated May 23, 2023