Tom Waits - Burma Shave (dvd)

This is a recording of an apparently complete concert from the early years, showing Tom Waits in fine form, helped along by a skilled and sympathetic band and a friendly and responsive audience. Tracks include a medley of Summertime and Burma Shave; Romeo Is Bleeding; 'Bullets' (more commonly known as Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun); Small Change, etc - you get the picture.
Talking of which, the show was shot in low light and quality is inevitably subject to digitising the product of the time, with the result that individual band members tend to appear as coloured pixellated blobs until they get focus, which usually only happens in the event of a solo, but the hazy appearance kind of goes with the music and is no bad thing - in fact, higher lighting might easily have produced a more visible gig, but probably not such a good one...
...because this is an excellent performance: onstage accompaniment is drums, upright bass, guitar, tenor sax/trumpet, while Tom throws shapes, or plays guitar or piano. Stage props include auto paraphenalia of early Waits imagery, such as petrol (sorry, gas) pumps, worn-out tyres and old Caddys (or is that a backdrop through the haze?), as well as the real-but-theatrical cigarettes and essential pork-pie hat.
It's filmed a while ago, but the voice has already been honed into a uniquely textured device and it's a treat to witness the rough ride the words have to endure while still managing to deliver heartbreak and damaged beauty in every song. It's also easy to imagine almost every frame, whether it's a jaw-jutting grimace or nearly-upright guitarist, as icon or caricature - take your choice. Whatever, the man is plainly enjoying himself.