I was had at the doorstep
Yesterday I worked from 10-3, came home, then headed out for my mom's. She made some food and then I drove us in her car to Long Beach to see Rufus Wainwright! It was my first time seeing him live and he was awesome!
Set list, more or less:
Danny Boy
Beauty Mark
Greek Song
Grey Gardens
Sanssouci
Leaving For Paris
Want
Gay Messiah
Shakespeare's Sonnet 10 - For Shame! Deny
Shakespeare's Sonnet 20 - A Woman's Face
Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 - When Most I Wink
California
Zebulon
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
-----------------
Going To A Town
The Art Teacher
Hallelujah
Les Feux d'artifice t'appellent
The opening band were these two British sisters (The Webb Sisters). The stage set up was pretty normal- curtain behind, just a piano, a lantern, harp, and some guitar... I thought it was all for Rufus, but turns out that just the piano was for him... so the opening band had the harp and lanterns (wtf) and they were okay... a little boring, but they said they were touring with Leonard Cohen, so that was impressive, and their last song was a cover of 1000 Stars that was good.
Then Rufus came out by himself... the whole place erupted in applause and he carried the entire show by himself! So he would either just play piano and sing, or play guitar and sing... so it was like it was all acoustic?? =D Opened with a faster, piano-aggressive version of Danny Boy, and Beauty Mark was really good too. His voice was sooooo powerful and good in that venue. It's so intimidating to play by yourself for 2 hours! Just shows how talented he is. Also, of course, his personality radiated and he joked with the crowd and made it seem like a much smaller, intimate affair... he messed up sometimes and said, “Aw man I fucked that up... second verse!” hahaha and made lots of jokes. One woman handed him a bouqet or roses and he was like, “These roses are beautiful! They're very distracting! … From me! Haha!” hahaha and made some jokes about his balls and being at Long Beach lololol. He was really talkative, funny and awesome so me and my mom really enjoyed it.
The highlight for me was hearing Greek Song... one of my favs and soooooooo happy he was playing it, it = <3333. And he followed it with Grey Gardens, another great one and it reminded me of Chantene :) Sanssouci sounded great on just guitar too, and we all sang the “Tonigghhhhhhht” part together. Everything sounded amazing and having minimal instruments really accentuated the power of his voice. He sang a lot from his upcoming album, and told us it was the first time he was performing the Shakespeare sonnets, so he said it was a practice run and at the end he said, “hmmm, I need more practice.” Lol. California was great too! Since it talks about leaving Cali he joked it referred to NorCal (hah!). First closer was another fav: Cig and Chocolate Milk... the way he played the piano (that little refrain) plus his voice for it = awesome.
He came back out and forgot his lyrics to Going To A Town: “... what am I going to do??” hahaha. The Art Teacher sounded great with just piano... and Hallelujah was magical. He ended the night with a French song from his new opera. Overall I was really impressed even though I knew he could totally carry the whole show by himself, he's so charming and talented lolol, and my mom had a good time too.
I chatted briefly with Zury and her sister since they went (and sat in the row behind me). It was good but it was short- before going I was a little ? because I didn't know if she even wanted to say hi to me... but I'm glad we did, and they were both totally cool, and afterwards it made me realize how much I miss her. We both insist on keeping in touch, and I hope we both pull through. :)
And I'd definitely see Rufus again, next time with a full band because it would be pretty epic...
Set list, more or less:
Danny Boy
Beauty Mark
Greek Song
Grey Gardens
Sanssouci
Leaving For Paris
Want
Gay Messiah
Shakespeare's Sonnet 10 - For Shame! Deny
Shakespeare's Sonnet 20 - A Woman's Face
Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 - When Most I Wink
California
Zebulon
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk
-----------------
Going To A Town
The Art Teacher
Hallelujah
Les Feux d'artifice t'appellent
The opening band were these two British sisters (The Webb Sisters). The stage set up was pretty normal- curtain behind, just a piano, a lantern, harp, and some guitar... I thought it was all for Rufus, but turns out that just the piano was for him... so the opening band had the harp and lanterns (wtf) and they were okay... a little boring, but they said they were touring with Leonard Cohen, so that was impressive, and their last song was a cover of 1000 Stars that was good.
Then Rufus came out by himself... the whole place erupted in applause and he carried the entire show by himself! So he would either just play piano and sing, or play guitar and sing... so it was like it was all acoustic?? =D Opened with a faster, piano-aggressive version of Danny Boy, and Beauty Mark was really good too. His voice was sooooo powerful and good in that venue. It's so intimidating to play by yourself for 2 hours! Just shows how talented he is. Also, of course, his personality radiated and he joked with the crowd and made it seem like a much smaller, intimate affair... he messed up sometimes and said, “Aw man I fucked that up... second verse!” hahaha and made lots of jokes. One woman handed him a bouqet or roses and he was like, “These roses are beautiful! They're very distracting! … From me! Haha!” hahaha and made some jokes about his balls and being at Long Beach lololol. He was really talkative, funny and awesome so me and my mom really enjoyed it.
The highlight for me was hearing Greek Song... one of my favs and soooooooo happy he was playing it, it = <3333. And he followed it with Grey Gardens, another great one and it reminded me of Chantene :) Sanssouci sounded great on just guitar too, and we all sang the “Tonigghhhhhhht” part together. Everything sounded amazing and having minimal instruments really accentuated the power of his voice. He sang a lot from his upcoming album, and told us it was the first time he was performing the Shakespeare sonnets, so he said it was a practice run and at the end he said, “hmmm, I need more practice.” Lol. California was great too! Since it talks about leaving Cali he joked it referred to NorCal (hah!). First closer was another fav: Cig and Chocolate Milk... the way he played the piano (that little refrain) plus his voice for it = awesome.
He came back out and forgot his lyrics to Going To A Town: “... what am I going to do??” hahaha. The Art Teacher sounded great with just piano... and Hallelujah was magical. He ended the night with a French song from his new opera. Overall I was really impressed even though I knew he could totally carry the whole show by himself, he's so charming and talented lolol, and my mom had a good time too.
I chatted briefly with Zury and her sister since they went (and sat in the row behind me). It was good but it was short- before going I was a little ? because I didn't know if she even wanted to say hi to me... but I'm glad we did, and they were both totally cool, and afterwards it made me realize how much I miss her. We both insist on keeping in touch, and I hope we both pull through. :)
And I'd definitely see Rufus again, next time with a full band because it would be pretty epic...