I haven’t really kept up with Martha Wainwright’s music over the last ten years or so, but she’s always such a pleasure to see live.
Last time I saw Martha in concert was all the way back in 2011, when she toured her album of Edith Piaf covers (and wore a very short gold dress that she hilariously described as her middle-aged hooker look). For whatever reasons, I missed out on her live shows ever since, but not this year, when she returned to the Melbourne Recital Centre.
I had a medium-level migraine all Friday, most likely the result of poor posture at a desk job, which I was praying would go away by the evening (it finally did). However I was still very hyped for the concert. To be honest, ever since her astonishing self-titled debut Martha’s songwriting has been somewhat hit and miss for me, but as a live performer she belongs to that rare group of artists I’d see any day.
There was no supporting act and the show began in a very unassuming way, with Martha and her four-piece band walking onstage, with a simple ‘Hi’ as a greeting. They launched straight into a couple of new songs from the latest album, before stepping back in time with Bleeding All Over You. I was never in love with Martha’s second album, but I do love this track. I didn’t put too many hopes up where the old songs from the first album were concerned, so I was quite satisfied with what we got: This Life, Factory and Far Away. Bloody Mother ****ing Asshole, arguably her best-known song, was sadly a no-show, but I can’t really blame Martha if she’s simply sick of playing it at this point.
If I was to sum up Martha Wainwright live, I’d go with ‘insanely engaging’, both during and between the songs. She’s an emotive and raw performer, with one of the most distinctive and expressive voices in pop music, capable of creating moments of absolute beauty with a hushed whisper or a powerful wail. In between, there was plenty of warm, funny, frank and self-deprecating banter. Martha jokingly complimented Melbourne on its growing skyline, saying that the change had confused her when trying to find her way to the venue.
An unexpected part of the concert was Martha weaving in her 2021 autobiography, Stories I Might Regret Telling You, about her life, musical career and the experience of growing up in a family of musicians, including of course her older brother Rufus Wainwright. She read out a few passages from the book, including a story of Martha’s father telling her about not wanting her at first and pressuring her mother to have an abortion. Ooof. By the sounds of it, she had a better relationship with her mother, Kate McGarrigle, whose song she performed as well as one of Rufus’.
It’s always a treat to hear Martha sing a song in French; this time she performed one on a piano, which she cheerfully admitted she couldn’t really play (she still got away with it, with some rudimentary ivory tickling that got the job done). Back for the encore, she introduced a brand new song called I Chose My Children Over My Career which was indeed a work in progress, as Martha had to constantly check the lyrics from a piece of paper. She followed it up with a gorgeous cover of a Tom Waits song. If she ever wanted to once again play a show of mostly covers, I’d be totally up for it.
For a final song, Martha and her musicians performed the emotional Proserpina, written by her late mother, without microphone or any audio equipment whatsoever. I don’t know if the natural acoustics managed to carry the song to the back of the venue, but from my row it was quite incredible and powerful. Then they were gone, and for a few brief moments it felt like we might actually get a second encore, before the lights went up after all. I left the Recital Centre with a resolution to never miss out on a Martha Wainwright tour again, whenever she makes it back to Melbourne.
P.S. As if I wasn’t getting constant reminders of time passing in my forties anyway, it was quite a jolt to see how much older the audience was at this show compared to the one thirteen years ago. I can’t even blame a change to the venue that can sometimes attract a younger or older crowd, since it was exactly the same venue.
P.P.S. During the years I missed, it seems that Martha has developed an eccentric thing where she would periodically lift her leg up high during the performance, as if she was practicing balance. It’s just as well that she was wearing a pair of sensible black pants, instead of that shorty-short dress from the Edith Piaf concert!
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