Ry Cummings is a folksy singer and woos the crowd and warms them up before Martha. He sings with a clear lovely voice, and plays his guitar well, and even throws in a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Halleluiah which seems to please the crowd although really who can compete with the original and Jeff Buckley’s version (which Ry himself acknowledges) he obviously has talent and was a good intro for Martha.

Martha Wainright is back, this time with a band, and she sings like noone I have ever witnessed. It is clear on her album that she sings (as corny as it sounds) ‘from the heart’ and to witness her live is almost too much at times. There are obviously a lot of fans in the crowd, this is made clear by the cheers that erupt as she comes onstage.

Martha invites the audience in to share her music, it has the feeling of a family affair; not surprising since she comes from a family of musicians. She declares to the audience that she asked the promoters to change the proposed “cabaret” style seating to standing so that more people could come to see her. It is met with much applause.

She opens with the singular anthem ‘Factory’, crooning:
/These are not my people I should never come here/

Oh Martha you were so wrong, in fact the audience tonight are her people, and we are all standing amazed at her voice and her music. I have never seen an artist so passionate and so earnest, you feel like you are in her personal space, in her world. And in the songs and lyrics she sings you can feel it:

/I’m not such a good lover, I’m a better talker
So when you touch me there/
I’m scared that you’ll see/
Not the way that I don’t love you/
But the way that I don’t love myself/

Not many artists can be that honest in their lyrics and their performance. At times it is just her with the guitar and microphone, and she talks to the crowd like we’re her friends.

She does a series of unique covers of songs drawing from a library as diverse as her father’s (Loudon Wainwright III), Leonard Cohen (he seems to be a favourite) and The Rolling Stones. She tells the crowd that she has good dance moves, and someone yells out to her that they love her shoes. There’s a bit of a joke about her merchandise, to be more specific underwear with “bloody motherf*ckin asshole” written on it. Some joke about people wearing it as a hat. The kind of banter that seems a bit clichéd, instead comes out as genuine and heartfelt. Like her music.

Instead of Rufus, her brother, to sing on the bonus track on the album ‘Bring Back My Heart’ her guitar/keyboardist/double bassist sings along with her. There’s a bit of an in-joke with the drummer, he comes out to play the bass in a song, and is preparing to sit down, and she tells him to come out and stand up. She ends with her poignant and momentous song ‘Bloody motherf*cking asshole’, a tribute to her father no less.

There is much applause and she comes back with an encore of her French song ‘Dis Quand Reveindras-tu?’ That was a killer, I could hardly breathe, could hardly look, it was just Martha and her voice, and even though I didn’t quite understand all the words (with my limited knowledge of French) it was clear to see what it was all about. Waiting for a lover to return.

And that’s it with Martha you don’t need to listen to her lyrics, even though they add more, her voice, with its raw and melodic pull tells you everything. Martha often says that she is “married to her music”. After tonight’s performance it’s clear it will be a long and fulfilling affair.