Waits Right Here

Few artists have the ability to polarize an audience like Tom Waits. Music critics swear by him as one of America's greatest songwriters. Most everybody else just marvels at the fact the man who had a broken-glass-on-a-gravel-road voice during his early-'70s heyday (and sounded like he was singing from the...

By Jay Webb

June 22, 2006

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Few artists have the ability to polarize an audience like Tom Waits. Music critics swear by him as one of America's greatest songwriters. Most everybody else just marvels at the fact the man who had a broken-glass-on-a-gravel-road voice during his early-'70s heyday (and sounded like he was singing from the bottom of your garbage disposal on his 1985 career renaissance Rain Dogs) is even still alive. That's part of the charm that's made Waits the cult hero he is today. An appearance in last year's critically derided Domino best sums up Waits' current persona. In a scene in which the cast goes to the desert for a drug bender, who walks by in the surreal haze for no apparent reason? Tom Waits, of course! Kudos to the Inwood for programming Waits' 1988 concert film Big Time. It's not on DVD yet and will either leave the audience enraptured...or scurrying for the exits. Big Time screens Friday and Saturday at midnight at the Inwood Theatre, 5458 W. Lovers Lane. Admission is $8. Call 214-764-9106 or visit landmarktheatres.com.
June 23-24

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