[In which there was a concert Sunday night (5)]

Who: Rufus Wainwright (with opener Teddy Thompson)
When: April 22nd
Where: The Triple Door

Notes: Where to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. I stumbled into the ticket for this concert, randomly checking the Triple Door's website the day the tickets happened to go on sale. I was joined by friends for the show, including two who had come up from Oregon, which was pretty awesome I have to say. We got in line wicked early because we wanted to ensure that our three sets of reservations were seated together, and it paid off, because we were given the best seats in the house.

No, really.

See? Yay. Also, please to note Rufus's stripy pants.

But first, Teddy Thompson opened, which was fantastic. His set was nearly entirely from his upcoming album, which is straight-ahead old school country. Partway through I was thinking it was the sort of set where you expect him to say at any minute, "And now a tune by Townes Van Zandt." He didn't, though, but he did cover Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Dolly Parton. Which is pretty awesome for an English folksinger, I have to say. His voice is just gorgeous. I am looking forward to the release of Upfront & Down Low because I, unsurprisingly, have a soft spot for classic country, but I guess I have to wait a bit.

Then Rufus came out (with a full band!) and blew us all away. His first number was the title track from Release the Stars, and seriously, I could not take my eyes off of him. I could barely -breathe- he was so ON, and he didn't let up a bit. It's the first show of this tour, so he joked about it being a rehearsal and there being songs he "had to do". He did every single song off of the new album, plus a few older songs, two from the Judy Garland show, and an Irish song his mother told him he had to do since he had a horn section. She was right.

There were a few flubbed lyrics... easy to do when the songs are as wordy as his... but he's utterly charming and the audience would have forgiven him anything, I think. The last time I saw him was an outdoor show & he had some trouble with his voice (we remember "Vibrate" in particular being tricky), but this show was note (if not word) perfect

His band is great, and look! They are all stripy too! What you can't see in the photo is that they're all wearing rhinestone brooches. Very sparkly & fabulous. There was a second show on Monday night, and it was all I could do to not go down and get in line for a standing-room-only spot.

At the merch table they were selling the new album, more or less. You got a copy of the liner notes & a voucher to pick up the CD when it's released next month. Said voucher was also a ticket to get the liner notes signed after the show (!). He was down to whispering at that point, but I got to look him in the eye and say "Thank you", and that was all I really wanted.

Rufus's album (Release the Stars) is amazing and comes out on May 15. I put Teddy's most recent album below, but his new disc comes out in August, I believe. And I'm going to try to stop looking at Rufus's tour page and plotting out trips I really can't justify taking to see him again. And again. And again.