Progeny of the smart, comic songwriter Loudon Wainwright III and Princess Fiona, Rufus Wainwright, mid 30s, strode on stage at the Uptown dressed in clashing casuals, an Obama bandanna upon his head as though he'd just escaped captivity at the hands of campus feminists and was greeted by light but warm applause, which was not due to the crowd's lacking enthusiasm but rather to its size. I don't know the exact number, but probably around 500 people turned out for the solo-at-piano-or-guitar performance of the young gay master of winking, swooning, winking, tirelessly baroque popular songcraft with the distinctive reedy, nasal pipes, and, as if to complement to the informal-recital nature of the gig, played it short and sweet, smiling much of the way through but not bothering much with banter.
Fortunately, (perhaps especially) when stripped of the elaborate instrumentation of his albums -- string parts and tides of harmony vocals -- Rufus' songs stand up very well under scrutiny. Lyrically, a Rufus song is slinky and knowingly overdramatic; much as you'd picture the songwriter himself doing, it comes into the living room, sprawls on the futon, lights a cigarette and languishes in the hilarity and the tragedy of it all. Musically, a Rufus song is as serious about its appearance as the most fastidious drag queen in New Orleans. "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" is probably his signature self-song, a paean to indulging in vices innocent (jelly beans) and deadly (the song's unidentified "other things") and getting to laugh about it in the end because you survived and can damn well go on being as silly as you want. His more visionary and abstract, non-self and less-poppy songs -- "Gay Messiah" being possibly the most extreme example -- don't work as well. This is why his past two albums, Wants One and Two, both of which teeter on concept-album status, aren't nearly as popular as his debut or his masterpiece, Poses, songs from which got the most applause Saturday night: "California," "Grey Gardens" and set closer "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk."
But the important thing to remember -- and something I have to remind myself every time -- is that you don't have to be gay to relate to or enjoy Rufus W.
I do think you have to be a serious Rufus fan, however, to enjoy his version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," the Shrek soundtrack song that introduced him to a whole new audience, which he sings perfunctorily everywhere he goes, as if he's on contract to do it. Whoever's holding him to that contract, please, let him out.
His opener for this tour(?) stop was half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche. She joined him on a few songs, trotting on and off stage quickly and quietly. Like the entire Wainwright clan, she's got quite a voice. And great sideburns. Just kidding.
set list
I'm Going to a Town
Leaving for Paris
Beauty Mark
Sanssouci
Want
California
Pretty Things
Grey Gardens
Memphis Skyline
Imaginary Love
I'm Not Ready to Love
April Fools
Katonah (The Death of the Firstborn)
The Art Teacher
Zebulon
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
encore
Little Sister
Hallelujah
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