Songsmith delivers favourites with emotion, drama
The Best of Rufus Wainwright Sunday | Vogue Theatre
Name a Rufus Wainwright smash hit.
Even fans of the 41- year- old singer fumble with that question. He just isn’t a singlesbased artist.
None have any trouble naming personal favourites from his seven- album career, however.
Billing Sunday’s Vogue show as the Best of Rufus Wainwright left the artist a wide option for set list song selection. Yes, his latest release titled Vibrate — The Best of Rufus Wainwright collects 18 fan faves together. But recent performances are anything but a run through the track listing.
His Vogue appearance was no different.
Strolling out and taking a seat at the piano, he lit into Danny Boy, sounding absolutely spot on as he milked every odd time shift and lyric out of the tune. It was an instant transportation to some late night Bowery dive of a distant era where Tin Pan Alley hacks gathered to get their drink on.
“I need to do a lot of solo shows as I finish up the next opera, Hadrian ( with libretto by Daniel McIvor premiering in 2015),” says Wainwright. “To be able to eat caviar daily and that sort of thing.”
It was just the singer, a piano, an acoustic guitar and spare lighting. Not even a candelabra budget, he joked.
And the songs came down with all the emotion, cabaret dramatics and impeccable quality that has always characterized his best work. Matinee Idol was marvellous. So was his plug for the new Rufus Wainwright app — “I’m going to be posting everything and anything. I’m dangerously into it.”
Given his marriage, fatherhood and sobriety it’s nice to see he still has plenty of that wit and random wordplay going on.
He is also a fairly ridiculous acoustic guitarist.
During Out of the Game, his bouncing on one foot, out of sync hip- shaking and grimacing were hilarious. But he sounded — as he did all night — mostly great. Still, there is not nearly the power when he delivers on acoustic guitar compared to the piano, right down to difficulties tuning it before Gay Messiah.
He says it’s because he was afraid of his father, who is an amazing guitar player.
The difference when he got back to the keys for the Art Teacher was huge. Wainwright’s voice was vast, warmer and the melodies flowed powerfully.
Montauk, the first single from his seventh album Out Of The Game, was part of a marvellously eclectic song list. One which probably landed upon fans’ personal hits as well as material possibly previously unheard. All delivered with that marvellously elastic voice and those orchestral arrangements he loves to surround it with.
With a recording of his opera Prima Donna coming and Hadrian debuting in the new year, Wainwright won’t be releasing any new material in the foreseeable future.
Given that, the Best of Rufus Wainwright was a perfect bridge until the next album cycle.