I volunteered to come here; long story. Back in the 1970s I borrowed a lot of money from Neil. For me, it was the days of long hair and short money. He loaned it to me so I could start a restaurant. I lost a lot of money on that restaurant. Let me rephrase that, I lost a lot of Neil’s money. And you don’t wanna see Neil mad. Anyway, it was a small, little restaurant, sort of a specialized place. We were gonna have eel and donuts and fish scales, just fish scales, sauteed and all gluten free. But it went under, so Neil said, ‘Listen, you owe me a lot of money, so I have three ideas for you: jail time or you can come work in my yard, or you can do the Bridge School.

— Tom Waits at the Bridge School Benefit, 10/27/13

This was Waits’ first live performance in over 5 years. Waits had an all-star band that included Les Claypool on upright bass and David Hidalgo on guitar and accordion. I had the pleasure of sitting next to an old friend of Tom’s, and he mentioned that the band spent 16 hours practicing for the 50 minute set. They were in exquisite form.

Setlist:

‘Raised Right Men’
‘Singapore’
‘Talking at the Same Time’
‘Chicago’
‘Lucky Day’
‘Tom Traubert’s Blues’
‘Lucinda’
‘Last Leaf’
‘Cemetery Polka’
‘Come On Up to the House’