Narc. Magazine Online
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Ben Lowes-Smith enjoys a show staggering in its beauty and remarkable in the quality of playing
Image by Ian Georgeson at Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Want One and Want Two are records that I have had enormous soft spots for, for twenty years, so I’m avoiding an impulse to gush here, but this show and the orchestral arrangements incorporated into it lift these already wonderful songs into new and emotionally transcendent territory. Rufus Wainwright cherry picks from the albums tastefully and astutely, and I’m struck by two things in the process. Firstly, how little Rufus’ remarkable voice has wavered or changed in the last twenty years and, secondly, how tremendously evergreen the songwriting is. The performance opens with an orchestral overture (thanks to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra), beautifully amalgamating moments from his most loved songs, before Rufus and the orchestra launch into a rousing version of I Don’t Know What It Is.
From then on in it’s a staggeringly beautiful show, with some songs feeling even more prescient that when they were written (Rufus jokes about the cycles Gay Messiah has gone through since it was written, having been everything from a joke to a protest song depending on the political and cultural climate). Goosebumps moments come from versions of Memphis Skyline – Wainwright’s tribute to an evening spent with Jeff Buckley (poetically, Buckley’s drummer Matt Johnson is playing with Rufus tonight), a stunning version of The Art Teacher, and the brutally direct Dinner At Eight. It must be said that the arrangements produced to accompany these songs are stunning – subtle, nuanced and perfectly in service of the songs.
The quality of the playing is remarkable too, typified by the string section’s intricate arpeggiation out of 14th Street, with music box accuracy. Rufus’ presence is warm, funny and self-deprecating, which is a pleasant counterblast to the heaviness of some of the material. The real tears start to flow in the encore though. Going To A Town – possibly Rufus’ best song and a political song I’d put on a pedestal with Shipbuilding or A New England is devastating and profoundly cathartic in the current climate. The evening really is a magical celebration of a superlative artist and some of his finest work.
