Playing the first of three sold-out shows at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday (6/12), Tom Waits [ tickets ] made a grand entrance from the back of the theatre, megaphone in hand.As he waded through the crowd, his gravely voice squawking the intro to Black Rider, the audience began the evening with a standing ovation to welcome the eclectic showman on his first tour through Southern California in a decade.

The minimalist stage design -- three steel warehouse-style lamps hanging from the ceiling -- accented the vaudevillian stagecraft central to Waits' performance. Offbeat stories and spirited interaction with the louder members of the audience provided several comic high points as Waits, congnizant of the fact that the characters and worlds in his music are often quite strange, eased the listener in through more accessible front doors.

In one show highlight, the comically mysterious What's He Building from the recently released ''Mule Variations,'' Waits played up the paranoid scenarios going through a nosey neighbor's mind as Smokey Hormel played a handful of different and undescribable instruments making a cacophony of sounds.

Waits also performed his standard piano set of ballads, this night including Innocent When You Dream and Picture In A Frame which he dedicated to his wife Kathleen Brennan.

In the special effects department, Waits punctuated various points of the show with handfuls of glitter and spent most of the evening on a slightly elevated platform that generated clouds of dust as he stomped his feet.

Waits leaned toward material from his later 80's and 90's catalog, including Jesus Gonna Be Here, Get Behind the Mule, Earth Died Screaming, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Downtown Train, Chocolate Jesus, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Filipino Box Spring Hog and 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six.

The long break from touring has apparently repaired some of the damage Waits seemed to be doing to his voice in the late 80's, when some shows were completed in a hoarse whisper. The lack of practice was also apparent as Waits occasionally fished for forgotten lyrics.

Waits finished his multiple encores with the recent Big In Japan, leaving the stage with another fistful of glitter and the audience in the last of several standing ovations of the evening.

Seen in the audience were Marilyn Manson, actor Vincent Gallo and Heartbreaker Mike Campbell and Weezer's Brian Bell.

Waits' current touring band features the multi-talented Smokey Hormel on guitar and various sound effects, Larry Taylor on stand-up bass, Dan McGough on keyboards and Andrew Borger on percussion.