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| Rufus Wainwright at the Fitzgerald Theater, April 13, 2013. (Photo by Mark Taylor.) |
Last night my wife and I went to see Rufus Wainwright at the
Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul. We also saw him last summer at the Minnesota
Zoo, which
I wrote about here. This show was a solo concert, presented by
Minnesota Public Radio station 89.3 The Current. It was a terrific show, and Rufus
was in a very good mood. Wainwright has an easy, relaxed charisma on stage. He’s
able to do a solo show very easily because he’s so obviously at ease in front
of an audience. He’s funny, charming, and intelligent. As I noted in my review
of Rufus’s show at the Zoo last year, he definitely has some traits in common
with his father, folk singer Loudon Wainwright III, who is also a very funny,
charming, and outgoing solo performer. (I saw Loudon in concert last year at
the Cedar Cultural Center, which
I reviewed here.)
Rufus Wainwright is a very unique singer, songwriter, and
performer. There’s no one I’d really compare him to, which I think is a good thing.
His songs encompass many different sounds and styles. Rufus’s voice is so
amazing. He has a huge range, and he can project so much emotion with his
vocals. He held some super long notes on “Vibrate,” and it was fun to hear him
show off a little bit.
It’s clear that Rufus really enjoys the Twin Cities, as he
mentioned that he’s always loved Minneapolis and that he’s beginning to love
Saint Paul as well. As he put it “Saint Paul’s not trying too hard.” This is a
great explanation of the charm of Saint Paul. Saint Paul is what it is; it’s
not trying to be showy. (I grew up in Minneapolis but now live in Saint Paul.) Rufus
also revealed that he was wearing a new pair of shoes which he purchased from
Heimie’s Haberdashery, which is one of the best men’s stores in the Twin
Cities. This also gives me something in common with Rufus, as I have also
bought a pair of shoes at Heimie’s-in addition to the suit I was married in.
Wainwright opened with “The Art Teacher,” which is one of my
favorite songs of his. I love the story the song tells, I love that it’s about
art, and I love that he sings it from a female perspective. “The Art Teacher”
tells the story of a schoolgirl who has a crush on her art teacher, “He asked
us what our favorite work of art was/ But never could I tell him it was him.” Great
song, and with Rufus’s dynamic piano playing it made for a dramatic concert
opener.
Rufus’s vocals were soaring on the catchy “Vibrate,” aka, “My
Phone’s On Vibrate For You,” and he held a very, very long note at the end of
the song. Wainwright has an amazing gift for writing infectious melodies that
remain in your brain long after you’ve heard them.
Rufus switched from piano to guitar for “Out of the Game”
the super catchy title track to his most recent album, and “Jericho,” also from
“Out of the Game.” “Out of the Game” is one of my favorite Rufus songs; it’s so
catchy and has such a great arrangement.
For the rest of the concert Rufus played piano, and the next
song was “Who Are You New York?” His piano playing on “New York” is so gorgeous
and lovely to listen to. Rufus told a story about meeting the singer-songwriter Jeff
Buckley, shortly before Buckley tragically drowned in 1997. Rufus said that he
had been somewhat jealous of Buckley, as his career seemed to be advancing at a
faster pace than Wainwright’s. But Rufus went on to say that by spending time
with Buckley he learned how gifted and fragile Buckley was, and his envy went
away. Rufus said he wished they could have sung together, which would have been
a magical meeting of great voices. Rufus then sang “Memphis Skyline,” which he
wrote for Buckley after his death. “Skyline” segued directly into “Hallelujah,”
the Leonard Cohen song that both Buckley and Wainwright recorded well-known
versions of. Then it was time for intermission, with Rufus promising us a special
surprise for the second half of the concert.
The special surprise was the very first choral performance of Wainwright's piece "Bloom," which was written for a dance company. "Bloom" is based on poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and was sung by the Twin Cities choir Vocal Essence, conducted by Philip Brunelle. "Bloom" was very nice, and you could tell that Rufus was really thrilled to have it sung the way it's meant to be. This special touch made Wainwright's affection for the Twin Cities clear. That he went to the time and trouble and expense to have a local choir perform this piece says a lot about how he feels about the Twin Cities.
Rufus then returned to the piano and sang “Going to a Town,”
another one of my favorites of his. He followed that with the very catchy
“Montauk,” which imagines Rufus’s daughter going to visit Rufus and his husband
on Long Island when she’s an adult. The next song was the very moving
“Zebulon.” I’ve heard “Zebulon” before, but had never paid it much attention.
For whatever reason, the emotion of the song really struck me when I heard
Rufus sing it last night. “Zebulon” was the closing song on Rufus’s 2010 album “All
Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu,” his concept album about the death of his
mother, the folk singer Kate McGarrigle. So obviously the song has a lot of
meaning for Rufus. It’s a slow song, with a melancholy melody. Lyrically, it’s
about the narrator’s friend Zebulon coming to visit, whom the narrator has not
seen in a long time. The only reference to death is the lyric “My mother’s in
the hospital,” but a prevailing sense of sadness runs through the song. It also
struck me last night how close Rufus obviously was with his mother. The first
time I saw Rufus in concert was 2010, when he was touring “All Days Are Nights.”
He performed the entire album from start to finish, with a request for no
applause between songs. Rufus also didn’t talk between any of the songs. Once
that half of the show was over, Rufus was his usual outgoing self. It was a
strange experience, seeing this singer I wasn’t very familiar with performing
sad song after sad song with no interaction from the audience. He seemed like a
man possessed. Looking back, I think I get that concert more. His mother died
and he was obviously very close to her and was still mourning her through
performing these songs. References to his mother’s death still crop up on the “Out
of the Game” album. On “Montauk,” the lyrics reference “One day years ago in
Montauk lived a woman now a shadow/There she does wait for us in the ocean.”
The closing song on “Out of the Game” is the lovely “Candles,” which is also a
tribute to Rufus’s mother. During the encore, Rufus spoke effusively about
tribute concerts for his mother this summer in New York, and the upcoming
documentary, “Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You,” which documents one of
the tribute concerts.
Rufus closed the show
with perhaps his most famous song, “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk,” which he
gave a lovely reading of. He quickly came back for an encore, and played an
interesting mix of four songs. First up was “Millbrook,” from his first album, followed
by a song written by his mother, “The Walking Song,” which was lovely and quite
moving. Next was “Complainte de le Butte,” which is a cover of a French song
that Rufus sang for the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack. Finally, Rufus closed the
show with “Foolish Love,” the opening song from his first album. On one of the encore
songs, I think it was “Foolish Love,” he made several mistakes in his piano
playing and laughed at himself for it, but if he hadn’t pointed them out I don’t
think I would have noticed-his playing still sounded great to me. It was a fun
evening with a very talented and gregarious performer.
Set list:
The Art Teacher
The Maker Makes
Vibrate
Out of the Game
Jericho
Who Are You New York?
Memphis Skyline
Hallelujah
Intermission
Bloom-sung by Vocal Essence
Going To a Town
Montauk
Zebulon
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
Encore:
Millbrook
The Walking Song
Complainte de la Butte (from Moulin Rouge)
Foolish Love
