Wainwright Family and Friends Christmas

I bought tickets for this when it was going to be the McGarrigle Christmas and am a bit disappointed that that's no longer the case. Still, it should be fun. I don't really need a lot of urging to go to Carnegie Hall. It's so pretty that I could just sit there and be happy. As usual I will be up at the very tip-top of the theater, in the seats I can marginally afford. Better to see a bunch of things from bad seats than nothing from good seats. Also, I'm fairly cheap.

Anyway, I imagine it will be lots of traditional music with some other stuff thrown in, which is mostly how Christmas concerts should be as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a big fan of the rock out for Christmas angle on Christmas music. Nor for that matter of the cheery pop with synthesizers angle.

This should be good though, as Rufus Wainwright is pretty reliably entertaining as a live performer. I went to see his Judy Garland concert with my grandmother and she thought he was just absolutely adorable. If she wasn't Jewish I would have brought her to this one as well. Or, rather, she would have brought me since she never lets me pay for anything.

Martha Wainwright I usually like and I think she's a good performer in that kind of tortured way that modern-folk-y performers seem to have. Very confessional girl with a guitar type stuff. Generally she seems less insistent on sounding pretty than most though, which is what puts her over the edge for me. Then again, this is a Christmas concert which usually means pretty is in fairly high supply. I don't entirely mind that (it allows me to pretend I go for the whole spiritual religion thing) provided there's nothing particularly precious about it. The words, "baby Jesus," always make me cringe.

Having talked about all the things I will be expecting from this concert, I'll mention that what I most excited about is that I don't know what to expect from the concert as a whole. They're having a whole bunch of guests (the "and friends" after all) and they should be some entertaining ones. Teddy Thompson will be on hand, as will Linda Thompson (so wonderful!) and David Byrne. Also, on the good side, Laurie Anderson. On this less good side, Lou Reed, who always strikes me as someone so convinced of his own genius that he honesly believes everything he works on should be received as though it reaches unparalleled levels of genius. Maybe I'm being completely unfair, but that's just how it seems. Also, Jimmy Fallon. Not as funny as he thinks he is.

Anyway, hopefully it'll be a nice time.