Martha Living

Thursday night, Martha Wainwright ended her tour for Come Home To Mama with a show at the Great Hall. Opening were two band-mates, Ariel Engle and Andrew Whiteman (Broken Social Scene), who also have a guitar-heavy duo act called AroarA. Accompanied by a drum machine, the two singer/guitarists traded licks, chords, and verses over songs that had numeric titles such as No. 1 and No. 5. The styles ranged from folk-pop, to indie spiritual, 80s dance, and sing rap. There was even one song with a monotone guitar drone reminiscent of traditional Ethiopian music. It was interesting music that deserves multiple listens.

Martha came on stage wearing salmon-pink denim and a "Rufus is a tit man" t-shirt. A well-seasoned pro, she connected with the audience by being by turn self-deprecating ("Next album is Martha Sings Other People's Better Songs"), teasing ("You came tonight to hear that one song? Well, you're gonna have to wait a little longer"), and philosophical ("I don't mind growing older. It'd be weird to get younger.") With a huge voice similar to her brother Rufus Wainwright, even Top 40 tunes like Radio Star sounded good. But her emotional singing and story-telling lyrics suited best folky numbers like Factory, torch songs such as I Am A Diamond (written by her late mother Kate McGarricle for an unproduced musical about notorious con-woman Cassie Chadwick), and mythic-sounding tunes including Proserpina. No wonder that for her encore she did Edith Piaf's Soudain Une Vallée.

There were a few chatterboxes who had to be hushed for the quieter numbers. But the rest ate up every word, whether it was quietly crooned or majestically soared. And yes, that fan finally got his song (Bloody Motherfucking Asshole) during the encore as the last song of the night. But I'm sure he wasn't unhappy with the wait.