Martha, our dear

Martha Wainwright with Vess Ruhtenberg
Birdy’s
Friday, June 3

Vess Ruhtenberg has shown himself to be comfortable in all the jackets he’s donned over the years as a musician, from United States Three to the Pieces and most recently with Hoti. He has, however, never been better than with just a guitar and his songs. During his opening set for Martha Wainwright, Vess deftly bobbed and weaved through mostly Watergate-era UST and Pieces songs while adding in a couple rarities for the devoted.

Martha Wainwright

Martha Wainwright followed in the same vein by starting solo acoustic before being joined by drums and bass. The last time Martha was in town was to open for and later sing backup for brother Rufus at the Vogue in 2002. Although she shares family musical characteristics with her brother, Martha’s folkiness is more reminiscent of Kate McGarrigle, her mother.

As her set at Birdy’s progressed, her songs started showing the signs of the singer/songwriter trap: the listener’s inability to definitively differentiate the first mid-tempo melody from that of the fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 10th songs in a set. However, it’s her voice that interprets the song rather than the melodies. What they intermittently lack in identity, her voice makes up for in depth and deflection.

From the thin squeak of Cindi Lauper to the lush breathy tone of Mazzey Star’s Hope Sandoval, her voice ranged from delicate to brazen with seamless fluidity. Wainwright has the confidence of someone who grew up around performing musicians; speaking to an audience is like addressing someone across the dinner table. She broke a string near the end of her set and after picking up a spare acoustic guitar from the side of the stage she sniped, “Gibson … they loaned me this thing and it’s a fucking piece of shit,” and since we had spoken before the show she looked directly at me and continued, “And you can quote me on that.” Check. While that’s not exactly how companies intend those gear endorsement deals to work, her candor was refreshing.