rufus

the sweets and i saw rufus wainwright at the crystal ballroom last night. 'twas lovely to see someone so adored for marching to his own drummer. (actually, marching to his own full orchestra, i suspect.) it's also refreshing to hear live music that's in tune!

(as you can see from the patterns adorning some of his flaming-er fans, his fans also march to their own drummers.)

one member of his band deserves a particular shout out. decked in thick rainbow suspenders, he played tenor sax, soprano sax, flute, recorder, piano and sang some lovely countertenor backup vox. hello, mr. most talented.

one of the highlights of the evening was an irish folk song that rufus and band performed sans amplification. maybe it was just me, but the crowd went crazy for this -- perhaps more so than for the old favs they came to hear him sing. pardon my new-agey moment, but there's magic in the unadulterated transmission of sound waves from human vessel to human vessel. one of my favorite aspects of the operatic tradition is said physical connection (sound produced by one person's body vibrating another person's body -- at a cellular level even!) conscious of it or not, people respond to this human connection when you give it to them -- last night being exhibit a-439.

the other highlight, of course, was the encore in which rufus lip synced to his cover of "get happy" dressed à la garland. with his band giddily participating as the dancing boys clad in black suits and baby pink shirts, they re-enacted the scene from summer stock -- complètement camp, mais complètement fab!

rufus performing the second act in lederhosen was quite adorable, too.