LIVE AT LOCK 17 - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
The fact that Rufus Wainwright can interrupt one of his most beautiful songs (as, spookily enough, he did exactly a year ago in the Union Chapel) with the decidedly less than beautiful assertion that he “had a bit of snot”, almost entirely encapsulates his charm. Perhaps this needs a little further explanation. Beauty, after all, can only exist if it is counter-pointed by the ugly, the miserable or the downright mundane - think Keats’s nightingale, if that’s not too pretentiously poetic of me. Why else does irony exist? I had a furious argument, once, with an ex-boyfriend who categorically insisted that Morrissey meant nothing he said. An infuriating statement which is akin to claiming that, because Oscar Wilde was funny, he had nothing serious to say. It’s an accepted “fact” that irony is a peculiarly English trait, born, no doubt, of the late Victorian difficulty of reconciling the continuing belief in the greatness of the British Empire with increasing economic decline and social unrest. That said, this contradiction can exist anywhere. Self-loathing is born of self-love, after all, and irony is the public voice of this. But in an effort to keep at least a handful of readers awake, I had better end this essay here, hoping that it has at least touched on some part of the glorious complication that is Rufus Wainwright.
And so, albeit belatedly, we return to the music, which is complemented, rather than detracted from by the humour of Wainwright’s between song banter and spurious links (”Every time I used to play that song, I’d look up and realise that it was 11:11. And it was then that I realised I was the Gay Messiah…”). He claims he likes to begin and end the set with a French song (although, in actual fact he doesn’t…), a fact which emphasises just how much feeling there can be in one of Wainwright’s songs even when one doesn’t understand the lyrics (then again, even when you do it seems to make little sense - why are the windows in “Rebel Prince” called Marigold??). And there are only certain of his songs, of course, that are lyrically obvious, such as the heart-wrenching “Dinner At Eight” or “Memphis Skyline”, the song he wrote for Jeff Buckley.
But every song has a story, and every story humanises the music so that one can almost begin to believe one knows Rufus - the thing idolatory is made of, after all! Like Morrissey, Rufus Wainwright means everything he says, and the jokes and contradictions are only proof of this.
Set List Agnus Dei/ Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk/ Pretty Things/ 11:11/ Gay Messiah/ I’m Not Ready/ Vibrate/ Beauty Mark/ Memphis Skyline/ The Art Teacher/ Rebel Prince/ Do You Love An Apple (with Beth Orton)/ Want/ Hometown Waltz/ Grey Gardens/ Dinner At Eight/ Encore 1 Hallelujah/ Foolish Love Encore 2 Poses/ Compliante de la Butte
