Rufus Wainwright with A Fine Frenzy @ Salle Wilfred-Pelletier, August 31, 2007

[petronia]

joliefolie: What sort of parent names their kid "Rufus" anyway?
petronia: President Shinra?
joliefolie:
petronia: Sorry, couldn't let that one go by.

Besides, it'd be awesome if President Shinra were, in fact, named "Loudon".

This was the first time either of us had been to a pop (i.e. non-classical) concert at Place-des-Arts, and there was quite a bit of cognitive dissonance - it felt weird to start applauding before the players stopped playing, let alone scream appreciation. XD; Plus there was an intermission, and all the well-dressed middle-aged ladies and gentlemen were out getting glasses of wine at the bar as usual. It was pin-drop quiet during the acoustic numbers; I had to turn my cellphone off.

SETLIST OF SORTS (about 90% accurate)

Release The Stars
Going To A Town
Sanssouci
Tulsa
The Art Teacher
Tiergarten
Between My Legs
**INTERMISSION**
Rules & Regulations
Nobody's Off The Hook
???
Not Ready To Love
Leaving For Paris No.2
A Foggy Day
???
Slideshow
trad Irish ballad thing, sans mic
Do I Disappoint You
14th Street
**ENCORE**
???
a French song I don't know the title of
Hallelujah
Pretty Things
Get Happy
Gay Messiah

SONGS PLAYED FROM LATEST ALBUM: 12 (i.e. all of them)
JUDY GARLAND NUMBERS: 3
BAND MEMBERS: 7 (drums, bass, guitar, piano, flute/sax, trumpet, French horn)
DISCO BALL: 1
DUETS WITH MARTHA (who popped in for the encore after her bachelorette party): 2
CHARMINGLY SHAMBOLIC FALSE STARTS: 2
CHARMINGLY AWKWARD FRENCH BLOOPERS: many
NUMBER OF TIMES SONG WAS SCREWED UP DUE TO GETTING EMOTIONAL AT MUSHY DEDICATION TO BF: 1 **
COSTUME CHANGES: 3 (counting the bathrobe as an outfit)

The crying started early, i.e. as soon as The Boy appeared onstage in a patterned white suit with no shirt and multi-coloured light-up brooches of the kind I associate with Jazz Fest tourists. His band weren't conservative dressers either. Also, did I mention disco ball. Pretty sure his voice was strained from touring but it only showed on a couple of numbers - "Tulsa" was a bit screwy but "The Art Teacher" was spot-on (we are fond of this song due to its hilarity, so glad he played it XD). "Tiergarten" was also wobbly but that was the one with the mushy dedication. The Judy Garland numbers were all delivered perfectly.

In interviews Rufus Wainwright talks like somebody one reads about in a book, which turns out to be magnified 50x onstage (sample quote: "God, you people are so lucky - I wish I could see me!"). joliefolie is right, "Slideshow" isn't in-character, it's just him. orz He also worked the Montreal Anglo angle and spoke mostly in fluent-but-severely-malapropic French, for great and heartwarming lulz from the audience.

Following intermission The Lederhosen appeared, which in retrospect we should've expected. orz At the end of the set the band left the stage slowly one by one, immediately followed by an encore consisting of Rufus sitting at the piano in a fluffy white bathrobe. Then Martha came on and they duetted together, first on an old French song and then on "Hallelujah", making the most angelic noises in the world, despite or perhaps because of not remembering the order of verses and bickering over who's supposed to sing what, in a very this-is-our-living-room sort of way.

Then Rufus put on lipstick and high heels and took the bathrobe off, to sing the last couple of numbers in full Judy regalia. _o_ At this point we were way past speechless into whatever comes after. It was a fitting end to what felt throughout like an escalating oneupsmanship of sparkly ghei.



I actually want to make a separate post about the opening act, with mp3 samples, but it will have to wait as I'm leaving the house. XD


** As sororial unit and I were discussing, one likes the idea of Rufus Wainwright's boyfriend more than anything. XD He seems to be dependably doting, which causes the present and potential ladies-of-a-certain-age who make up 50% of the audience to breathe a sigh of relief (I won't speculate on the opinion of the gay men comprising the other 50%).

Comments

[corneredangel.livejournal.com]

The next county over past Fairfax, on the Virginia side of the river from DC is Loudoun. The only reason I don't just explode in laughter every time I see that name is because there is *another* Virginia county the name of which is Fauquier.

(...now pronounce that in a stereotypical southern accent. And there is nothing more to say. Ever.)

[astrael-nyx.livejournal.com]

OHGOD I am deeply envious. I've attended every single one of his Montreal concerts since 2003, but obviously, I couldn't this year and I regret it so much. He's never done the Judy Garland thing before! And I hate that I missed his duet with Martha; the last time she showed up at his Montreal concert was 2003(4?) before she became more famous in her own right.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I wasn't expecting Martha to show up at all - Rufus mentioned something about it earlier but his French was so garbled that all I retained was he said his sister was deaf-mute when he meant to say she was getting drunk. XD;; It turned out she was getting married the next day(!) and left her bachelorette party in order to come sing in his encore.

I'll try to catch Martha's set at Osheaga next weekend, pretty hyped for it.

[helvetius.livejournal.com]

*suffers severe fangirl envy*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Lots of photos in this thread (http://boards.rufuswainwright.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=470145&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=2&vc=1), by someone who was actually close enough to the stage to take them (we were row T centre, two-thirds of the way toward the back). Though cameras are technically banned in there. XD;

I thought you at least would want a report, so. XD

X3

[helvetius.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAHHHHH! RUFUS' GAMS! SANKYUU! XDXDXD

[joliefolie.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that glittery white suit actually has interesting patterns on it.

En passant, this article (http://www2.canoe.com/divertissement/musique/nouvelles/2007/09/02/4465439-jdm.html) fills in some of the blanks of your setlist. Namely, Beautiful Child, If Love Were All, and Macushlah.

[joliefolie.livejournal.com]

And the La Presse article (http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070902/CPARTS/709020417/1017/CPARTS) says that the first song that he sang with Martha is "Nuits de Miami" by Josephine Baker. And a fan review says that he opened the after-intermission set with "Harvester of Hearts," and the encore with "I Don't Know What It Is," which fits pretty well with what I remember. (Does this mean that we've succeeded in re-constructing the entire setlist, now? XD)