Rufus Wainwright - Friday, February 22, 2002 @ the Vic

Though it is early in the year I can already say that I saw one of the best shows of the year. Friday night at the Vic Theater Rufus Wainwright showed that being a folk singer isn’t about cleaver lyrics and an acoustic guitar…it was about making folk music that can rock.

Being behind the piano at times and also sitting cross-legged on a stole with a guitar Rufus and his band, which also include his sister Martha and his opener Teddy Thompson, played for over 2-hours. He covered most of all the tracks on his second and latest release Poses covering “cigarettes and chocolate milk,” “california,” “the tower of learning,” “rebel prince,” “one may guy,” (which was written by his dad Loundon Wainwright III) and the title track.

He also covered his 3 soundtrack songs, from “across the universe” off the I am Sam” soundtrack to “instant pleasure” from Big Daddy plus his cover on the Shrek soundtrack.

He also played a few tracks off his first self-titled album, “danny boy,” “april fools,” and “beauty mark”

To me he’s the male version of Tori Amos…with funny chats in between sets and a passion for his music. His voce may be annoying to some but this night it carried over strong throughout the venue that it gave new meanings to many of his songs.

This show was very casual…one of the most casual shows I’ve ever seen…where nothing seemed to be planned…Rufus and the gang seemed to just go with the flow, it even seemed that the second encore wasn’t even planned.

Rufus has a lot of talent and a promising future…and that’s all I can really come up with for now…no cleaver little endings like I usually do…I guess I’m just curious what’ll he’ll come up with next.

--Todd, Chicago - iownu2@yahoo.com