Rufus! Rufus! Rufus!

-It's a little late, cause I'm technologically troubled but...here's a review of the Rufus Wainwright show that took place on October 2nd at the Music Hall in Portsmouth. Enjoy!

I have to admit it’s been a long time since I’ve been overly excited to go to a concert (after the first ten you tend to get super jaded), but when I heard that Rufus Wainwright was coming to the Music Hall in Portsmouth my giddy fan girl radar was through the roof! In addition to being one of my epic celebrity crushes, Wainwright has been called one of the best songwriters on the planet, and has a reputation of being an overall amazing entertainer (find a video of him on youtube doing Judy Garland covers and you’ll agree). So obviously there was no other place I would be on October 2, than at this concert with fellow WUNH-er, Chris, who had no previous Rufus experience.

The atmosphere at the Music Hall that night was a little more mature and refined than the concerts I’m used to going to, but I can only assume that’s because Rufus Wainwright only attracts the classiest of fans. When Wainwright did take the stage, adorned in a very classy sequined belt (which he claimed was to hide all the lobster he ate over the summer), he sat down at his grand piano and began playing “Going to a Town,” one of his singles off his 2007 album, Release the Stars. My jaw instantly dropped. Wainwright has the most incredible voice I have ever heard and I hadn’t actually realized that until I heard him live. He sings on key, which is amazing enough for a live performance, but he also puts a great deal of passion into his voice. Through this passion it’s obvious that Wainwright takes great pride in the music he writes and performs. It didn’t matter what he sang the rest of the night, I knew I would be completely captivated by his voice alone (I‘m pretty sure Chris will agree with me on this).

Between playing a large selection of songs from Release the Stars and switching back and forth between piano and guitar, Wainwright managed to play a few new selections from his future album, that he mentioned would be comprised completely of solo piano works. New work “I’m Sad with What I’ve Got” showed the decline of a relationship, while “Who Are You, New York?” exhibited some stunning piano arpeggios. Wainwright said the latter was one of the more technically difficult songs off the forthcoming album, and he executed it beautifully proving that his piano skills are just as captivating as his incredible voice.

My only qualms about the show were that Wainwright didn’t play “Release the Stars,” my favorite of his songs, or “Tulsa,” a song written for Brandon Flowers of the Killers; believe me it’s genius for many reasons. He did manage to play “Hallelujah,” the song from Shrek that gave him more mainstream attention. Obviously the audience on this particular night had seen the movie and knew the song from there, as they immediately gave him a standing ovation for his performance of the song. I can understand the appeal to play a song everyone knows, and naturally he did a beautiful job, but I sort of wish if he was going to play a song from a movie he had played “Instant Pleasure” from Big Daddy (why wasn’t that the song that made him famous?). Despite these minor qualms it was still one of the top performance I’ve attended, I left even giddier than when I went in, and hopefully I made Chris a Rufus fan for life!

- Courtney (please ignore horrible picture quality as the Music Hall hates photography and I had to sneak that one in really quickly)