Don't be fooled by the front cover, which has what is probably the best ever photograph of Tom Waits clutching a glowing viscera of fairy lights. The music on this album is (according to the minimal notes) from Waits 1977 world tour. But if you like Waits earlier beatnik incarnation (Nighthawks, Small Change), then this album offers an insight into a transitional period, in which earlier songs (ie from Closing Time, Heart of Saturday Night) get a makeover in musical style that prefigures the stuff on Blue Valentines. Waits plays piano throughout, assisted by Frank Vicari (tenor sax), Chip White on drums and a certain Dr Fitzgerald Jenkins on double bass; almost certainly a pseudonym for Jim Hughart, whose unmistakable style contributes to killer versions of "Diamonds on my windshield" and "The one that got away". Overall, the recording quality is good (probably recorded off the mixing desk), and Waits makes some amusing attempts to initiate dialogue with what sounds like a sparse audience (yeah, it's that early...)