LIVE AT THE LYRIC THEATRE - RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
What is it about Rufus Wainwright? Alone onstage once again (he apologises for not being able to play the more epic songs from new album “Want One”, promising he’ll be back to do so next year), he nevertheless maintains the attention of the entire audience throughout - an awed silence only punctuated by rapturous applause, and laughter at Wainwright’s cheerful between-song banter. Any other performer would provoke at least a few yawns or a ripple of shuffling when spending rather longer than average to tune his guitar. Wainwright, with adorable little boy charm (”Please buy my record so I can afford a guitar tech!”) merely serves to make the audience love him more, so that even a bizarre outing into knees-up Cockney music hall territory with an unaccompanied “Percy In The Park” doesn’t seem out of place.
All Photos by Tara. (2003)
Last time he was in London, Wainwright admitted to being “afraid” of guitars, and for about two thirds of tonight’s set, he resolutely sticks to his piano to avoid the horrors of guitar-tuning as much as possible. “If I was the Gay Messiah,” he declares when playing the track of the same name from unreleased album “Want Two”, “All guitars would be tuned. First miracle!” However, it doesn’t seem to take much to get Wainwright over his fear, and it’s ultimately hard to choose between the upbeat guitar of “California” or “Gay Messiah” and elegaic strumming of “11:11″ or “Want” and the bright piano of “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” or “Rebel Prince” and the flowing tones of “Poses” or Moulin Rouge’s “Compliante de la Butte”.
One thing is for sure, however - that the best is saved until last. The final song of the main set is the beautifully tragic “Dinner At Eight” - a song which, last time Wainwright played it at the Lyric made his mother cry. And who can blame her? Even on album the song is enough to send shivers through the hardest of hearts, but live it is so heart-rendingly amazing that it almost makes one feel guilty for listening! “I don’t know why people don’t like songwriters these days,” a puzzled Wainwright tells the audience. “They just buy the strangest stuff!” After a show like this, it’s easy to share his bewilderment.
Set list : Grey Gardens/Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk/Pretty Things/Vibrate/California/11:11/Rebel Prince/Beauty Mark/Little Sister/Harvester Of Hearts/In A Graveyard/Compliante De La Butte/Aimee/Percy In The Park/Beautiful Child/Want/Gay Messiah/Poses/Dinner At Eight/Encore 1: Foolish Love/Miss Otis Regrets Encore 2: Liberty Cabbage
