Rain Dogs” is as close as Tom Waits has ever come to releasing a commercially popular record. The 1985 album, with its gnarled cacophony of instruments and its disorienting mash-up of genres, features 19 back-alley ballads that fit together like jagged puzzle pieces. It’s mad, mysterious, and oddly emotive.
When Jonny Peiffer and Stu Dias started discussing which two Waits albums to perform at Peiffer’s upcoming Desert Island Live show, “Rain Dogs” was their first choice.
Deciding on the second album was trickier. Dias was initially leaning toward either 1992’s “Bone Machine” or 2004’s “Real Gone,” but both seemed exceptionally difficult to re-create in a live setting. Eventually he and Peiffer settled on “Alice,” released in 2002.
“The album is written to be very cohesive, kind of like ‘Rain Dogs.’ It’s a suite of songs,” Dias said. “It will make the show seem very seamless.”
Dias and Peiffer will join more than a dozen other musicians and a couple of dancers to perform “Rain Dogs” and “Alice” in their entirety at The Dance Hall in Kittery, Maine, on Saturday, April 25. The ensemble includes members of numerous Seacoast bands, offering a formidable mix of strings, keys, horns, and percussion.
Peiffer, a keyboardist and percussionist who plays with Seacoast bands Shango and Sojoy, started the Desert Island Live series in 2013. For the first show, he assembled a band that performed two Joni Mitchell albums, “Blue” and “Court and Spark.” Peiffer arranged the songs, while local singers Taylor O’Donnell and CJ Lewis split vocal duties.
“‘Blue,’ especially, had been a favorite album of mine since I was in high school,” Peiffer said. “That was one of the records early on in my listening that sort of clued me into album-making as an art form in itself.”
The show was a success, and Peiffer decided to continue the series, presenting two albums by a specific artist for each installment. As he brainstormed ideas for a second Desert Island show, he approached Dias, a singer and guitarist who plays with Soggy Po’ Boys and Mother Superior and The Sliding Royales.
“(Tom Waits is) such a great performer and storyteller. … He’s just captivating.”
— Jonny Peiffer
At first, Peiffer suggested doing Paul Simon records, but Dias worried his deep voice wouldn’t be a good fit for Simon’s tunes. He instead suggested Waits, who he has been listening to since he was about 15. The Soggy Po’ Boys have covered several Waits songs and recorded a version of “Dirt in the Ground” on their debut album.
“Most people in the band are pretty big Tom Waits fans,” he said.
Dias is no stranger to tribute shows. In February, he helped organize a show in which local acts played songs by The Band. A few years earlier, he spearheaded a similar event in which musicians played the full Beatles album “Abbey Road.” He also took part in a recent tribute to Louis Armstrong at The Dance Hall.
Unlike in those other events, though, the goal of the Desert Island show is to reproduce the albums note for note. And replicating a combined total of 34 Tom Waits songs is daunting.
“The biggest challenge of this show is delivering the music convincingly, not because I don’t think I can, but because it feels so incredibly personal,” Dias said.
Many of the tunes have complicated instrumentation, with sounds that are sometimes difficult to identify. And Waits is a notoriously theatric performer who brings a carnival atmosphere to his concerts and recordings.
“Tom Waits is sort of an idol in that way, in that he’s such a great performer and storyteller and engaging figure. He’s just captivating,” Peiffer said.
“There’s a lot of interesting stuff happening in (Tom Waits’) music, and, to be honest, there have been things that play tricks on my ears time and time again.” — Eric Klaxton
Peiffer is one of three arrangers for the show, along with Mike Effenberger and Eric Klaxton. Klaxton, who plays saxophone and clarinet, said trying to replicate Waits’ songs has been a stimulating process.
“There’s a lot of interesting stuff happening in his music, and, to be honest, there have been things that play tricks on my ears time and time again,” he said.
He pointed to the song “We’re All Mad Here,” off of “Alice.” There are so many instrumental paths and overlapping sounds that it’s confusing to separate all the pieces on paper, he said.
“Luckily, the musicians in the band are super reliable and very familiar with the music, which allows me to be less specific about notes and rhythms and trust that guided … improvisation will achieve what I’m looking for,” Klaxton said.
Gearing up for the show has been highly emotional for Klaxton, who recently lost a lifelong friend. Cody John Laplante, a contributing writer for The Sound, died of a heroin overdose earlier this month. Laplante had been working on a story about the Tom Waits show, and had interviewed Klaxton and Dias shortly before his death.
For Klaxton, the devastating loss of his friend made arranging the songs even more difficult, as death and loneliness are prominent themes in Waits’ work, particularly on “Alice.” But he remains enthusiastic about the concert in Kittery.
“It’s beautiful to be a part of this project and I appreciate the wonderful group of people I am able to work with,” Klaxton said. “Despite the challenges it will present emotionally, I’m very much looking forward to the performance.”
The project has been emotional for Dias, too. While listening to “Alice” recently, he was moved by the song “Fish and Bird.”
“I could barely keep it together listening to it. I don ‘t know how the hell I’m going to deliver it to people convincingly,” he said.
But Dias is eager to give it a shot. He said The Dance Hall is an ideal setting for series like Desert Island Live. Unlike at bars and clubs, people attend shows at The Dance Hall “just to experience music,” he said. “It’s a really exciting place to test out slightly risky projects.”
The show takes place on Saturday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. at The Dance Hall, 7 Walker St., Kittery, Maine. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door, available at thedancehallkittery.org.