Rufus Wainwright on virtual touring: “Special times need special artistic ideas!”

Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has announced a virtual live-stream tour through all 9 of his studio albums. The tour will see the albums performed in chronological order with one side performed for each date. 

“Special times need special artistic ideas,” he says. Starting October 9, the initiative is the latest in a string of innovative ideas by performers to maintain engagement wit their audiences and find new revenue streams during the pandemic. 

Tickets for the ‘Rufus-Retro-Wainwright-Spective’ are $20 in advance per show, and $25 on the day. Multiple show bundles are also available, and come with the opportunity for fans to participate in intimate Q&A’s with Wainwright and other surprises.More dates will be announced for the winter at a later time.

Wainwright was on the forefront of live-streaming with his IGTV Quaratunes Robe Recital series, where each day he performed a song a day while playing in his bathrobe at his home. In June he upped the production with a performance of his new album Unfollow The Rules in a session at the old Hollywood Paramour mansion. 

Now with Rufus-Retro-Spective he takes a step further playing 45 minute concerts highlighting albums from his catalogue. Guitarist Brian Green and keyboardist/pianist Jacob Mann will accompany Wainwright in these concerts, with the promise of  songs not played in many years, all with new arrangements. On top of the songs from the albums, Wainwright says he will sprinkle in cover songs that fans can vote from over 100 that he has performed in the past, or has wanted to perform in concert.  

“I cannot tour my new album which is why I have had ample time to reflect. I consider Unfollow the Rules a bookend to my first album, both were recorded and produced in Los Angeles, in a lot of the same studios and with a lot of the same session musicians. It’s time to look back to look forward. I’m excited for fans to join me on my trip into the past and on this virtual world tour of my entire studio album catalogue.“


Below are the dates for A Rufus-Retro-Spective!
October 9 – From Foolish Love to Baby
October 16 -From Beauty Mark to Imaginary Love
October 23 – From Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk to Tower of Learning
October 30 – From Grey Gardens to In a Graveyard
November 13 – From 14th Street to Dinner at Eight
November 20 – From Agnus Dei to Hometown Waltz
November 27 – From This Love Affair to Old Whore’s Diet

Tickets are available here. Additional shows covering the rest of Wainwright’s catalogue will be announced at a later date.