It is currently 1:49am and I’m awake and blogging. I skipped out on last night’s Battles gig because The Ledge got sent away for work and I couldn’t give the spare ticket away to save my life, and I was far too exhausted to haul myself down to a math rock gig on my own. I wanted to conserve my energy for Rufus, who I’d been waiting to see outside of a festival for a while now.

Needless to say the gig was memorable. I missed the opening act because I was slow getting out of the house, but timed it well to take my seat and only wait about 10 minutes for the main attraction. It was pretty much as you would expect to, a setlist consisting mostly of tracks from current album, Release the Stars. A 7-piece band. Theatrical clothing. Amazing vocals. A couple of costume changes and a couple of Judy Garland songs. Some entertaining between-song banter. He was pretty much perfect. In particular I enjoyed “Do I Disappoint You,” “Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk,” “Beautiful Child,” and my favourite ever Rufus Wainwright song, “14th Street.” It was lovely to see him bring a fan on stage to do the spoken word bit of “Between My Legs.” He sounded great singing an Irish folk tune sans microphone. He looked great in lederhosen. He looked even better dressed as a woman, tottering around on high heels and lip syncing while dancing with his band during the encore.

Something, however, was missing and I don’t think it had anything to do with what was occuring on the stage. Perhaps it was the seated venue, or the woman in front of me bitching through the whole performance that only being 20th row in a large theatre just wasn’t good enough (I don’t know what she was fussing about, my seat was fantastic, I had a great view of the whole stage, was close enough to see facial expressions, and being in the row in front of the sound board meant I had the best sound in the house!), or maybe it was because I was on my own, I don’t know. Maybe I just had a premonition.

Now, I’ve been going to gigs at the Apollo for 10 years, the Ledge for even longer. We always park in the same place when we go and in 10 years we have had nary a problem. Tonight, the first time I’ve ever driven myself to the Apollo sans companion, my car got broken into, the passenger window smashed and the bastards rifled through my glove box. Strangely, the only thing missing appears to be the jewel box for Want One. They didn’t take the CD though, as that was in the player. As this is the second car incident this week (some inattentive young lady rear-ended me at 3mph, destroying my bumper a week ago), it has somewhat marred the evening and taken any cozy post-gig glow I may have had away. So it’s now going on 2am, I’m waiting for the RAC to phone about replacing my window so I can drive into work tomorrow, I’m shattered, and I have only the memory of Rufus Wainwright in drag to keep me from losing the plot…..

Rufus Wainwright – 14th Street

Rufus Wainwright – Gay Messiah

Rufus Wainwright – Between My Legs