Tom Waits' debut album for his new label Anti- (part of the Epitaph group), Mule Variations, came out in April 1999. His twelfth studio record overall and his first since 1993’s Black Rider, Billboard described the release as “musically melding backwoods blues, skewed gospel, and unruly art stomp into a sublime piece of junkyard sound sculpture." The album went on to win a Grammy at the 2000 awards. Tom’s ‘Get Behind The Mule’ tour was a sporadic affair, taking in dates across the US and Canada, plus a number of shows in Europe. Running between June and September ’99 initially (a further leg in 2000, with 5 more European dates, also took place), on 17th October he performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver (not to be confused with the Boston venue of the same name, where Waits had given three shows the month before). Playing alongside his touring band of the time, featuring Gregory Hormel on guitar, Larry Taylor on bass, Daniel McGough on keyboards and Andrew Borger on drums, and the subject of an FM Radio Broadcast, this dynamic gig is now available for the first time, in its entirety, on this CD, illustrating beautifully how, at this period of change for Tom Waits, the man was as potent as ever he’d been, both in the studio and in a live setting.
