Rufus Wainwright brings audience to its feet in solo show,
Singer throws little bit of everything into show
Rufus Wainwright Southam Hall Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
He’s that first born son, all grown-up now with a family and everything.
At 40, Rufus Wainwright is a more thoughtful and reflective person, and a more mature and measured performer.
The once-troubled Gay Troubador is no longer. The musical progeny of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III has become a respected artist around the world, equally comfortable delivering magical musical evenings by himself or with large orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony.
Saturday night at Southam Hall, it was solo Wainwright in a bravura performance alternating between the piano and the guitar.
The show was a mix of old and new songs off his most recent album Out of the Game. The title is a bit misleading. Rufus is definitely in the musical game. In fact he demonstrated Saturday that he has become a prodigious talent.
The songs he sings are full of meaning even though they often have a simple storyline. But they are more than just a string of sophisticated lyrics. The music he plays is a complex and intelligent blend of classical, jazz and torch. The piano punctuates Wainwright’s words or carries them along on rivers of sound.
His latest album was released in 2012 and was intended to be more of a pop album, a party disc.
Early in the show, which started at 8 p.m. and finished at about 9:50 p.m. without an intermission, he played the title track Out of the Game and Jericho. By that time he had the party fully on inside Southam Hall.
Wainwright has enough personality to fill a large hall with his presence. He moved easily from song to song to story.
One of his early tales had a 10-yearold friend moving to Ottawa because her father, the well-known former diplomat and senior public servant Robert Fowler, was headed to a job. Rufus was a bit envious. The capital was a place to be for a 10-year-old, he said, with a hint of whimsy in his voice.
His family is never far from him. He performed several songs with them in mind, including an amusing/ poignant tune about his (also celebrated singer) sister Martha, who is slow to respond to phone calls apparently. A new song called Argentina is a lament from the road about missing his partner, and Montauk was dedicated to his daughter Viva.
He also ventured into French, with the songs Feu d’Artifice and Moulin Rouge. And he told some tales en français as well, although his facility with the language might be a tad rusty. But even then, Wainwright has the ability to stumble and still charm.
My favourite song was his tribute to the late Lou Reed of Velvet Underground fame who passed away this past week. The song Who Are You New York is as a good a piece of musical writing as any produced about that great city.
He richly deserved the standing ovations that ended the performance.