Rufus Wainwright 'Milwaukee At Last!!!' (Polydor) Released 07/09/09

Unless you’re an obsessive fan or were there in person, live albums, generally speaking, are inherently flawed, the quips, laughter, applause, context and even passing of time, unintentionally lost in live translation.  For a showman of Rufus Wainwright’s calibre, where visual and audible performance bear equal importance, the niche appeal of a live album is arguably significantly reduced.

It’s of little surprise then, that the ten track audio feast ‘Milwaukee At Last!!!’ is accompanied by a twenty-three song boasting DVD of the very same concert, recorded at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 27th 2007, part of the critically acclaimed Release The Stars tour.

The fourth oldest continuously operating theatre in the US, the Pabst, fondly known as the Grande Olde Lady, flaunts a two-ton crystal chandelier, white Italian marble staircase and a stage previously graced by such luminaries as Rachmaninoff, Laurence Olivier and Anna Pavlova; like the performance in question, the venue, lavishly exuberant, is typically Wainwright.

As the DVD, intercut with handheld backstage footage, establishes an infatuation with brooches and a commitment to striped patchwork suits, lederhosen and Judy Garland drag, the CD largely cherry picks from the Grammy nominated singer-songwriter’s decadently flamboyant fifth studio album.

Opening the show with the album closer, ‘Release The Stars’ uses grand piano, double bass and horn section to dazzling theatrical effect, before unreservedly inhabiting ‘Going To A Town’ and ‘Sanssouci’, the French expression meaning “without worry” and reference to the palace built by Frederick the Great, with unparalleled dexterous fervour.

A wry admission of incredible yet imaginary sex with Brandon Flowers precedes ‘Rules and Regulations’ as the silence inducing, haunting solemnity of ‘Leaving For Paris’ stuns the audience and heralds the “European section of the show” and Wainwright’s obsessive interest in doomed diva Judy Garland with ‘If Love Were All’.

Due to the all singing, all dancing, glitter and sparkle of the show, Wainwright forewarns the audience when its time to “get depressed” with beautifully heartfelt, peak hitting renditions of ‘Not Ready To Love’ and ‘Slideshow’, before shattering all vocally smoked mirrors with the show-stopping, acoustic testing, off mic projection of John McCormack’s famed ‘Macushia’ and affecting lip smacking finality of ‘Gay Messiah’.

They might be inherently flawed, but ‘Milwaukee At Last!!!’ gives live albums the benefit of the doubt and somehow just about forgives the act of vicarious gig going.