David Byrne joins Rufus Wainwright

Posted: 03/05/09

Given last night, I will always associate white burgundy with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Last night in the winery, we featured a tasting with one of the rock stars of the French wine world — Didier Suguier of William Fevre. While the tasting was finishing in the winery, Rufus Wainwright's Blackout Sabbath was commencing to a sold-out audience in the performance space/restaurant. The concert was to bring awareness to energy conservation and thus, we used no electricity and had the sound system turned off, lighting, and even the air-conditioning systems turned off.

The room and stage were lit by hundreds of candles and the show had an intimacy unlike the other concerts so far since opening. Joining Rufus on the stage were David Byrne, Teddy Thompson, Mark De Gli Antoni, Sloan, Jenny Muldaur, as well as, Janeane Garofalo as another surprise midway through the show. The songs had a real campfire feel, with much of the audience singing along.

David Byrne got the place jumping with his Talking Heads hit, "Road to Nowhere" For the second encore, Rufus sat at the piano and sang "Hallelujah" in a way that makes his version and intonation of the song special among all who sing this classic. But having the full ensemble of great voices back him up on the stage pushed the songs to incredible heights. It really was one of the great live performances so far at City Winery.

Here is a fantastic gallery of photos from the night.