Rufus & Martha Wainwright hosted Noel Nights @ Town Hall w/ Sufjan & more (pics, setlist)

Siblings Rufus and Martha Wainwright hosted Noël Nights at Town Hall on Sunday, offering up joy and good cheer with a whole host of guests, including other members of the extended Wainwright family, plus Sufjan Stevens, Emmylou Harris, Joan as Police Woman, the Dirty Three’s Jim White and more. Things kicked off with everyone singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and also included Rufus and Sufjan singing “Silver and Gold,” Loudon Wainwright‘s ode to suspended holiday parking rules, “Eight Nights a Week,” Emmylou, Jenni Muldaur and Teddy Thompson singing Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Color,” and Rufus bringing the house down with “Minuit Chretien” (the French version of “O Holy Night”). The evening ended with everyone on stage for a rendition of The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.” Check out the setlist, and a couple videos from the show below.

Rufus and Martha talked to The Montreal Gazette about their upcoming Noël Nights shows in Montreal:

“I think it’s become the pinnacle of our musical relationship and family connection,” Martha said, “where all the aspects of who we are and what we do are mixed together, and done on stage.

“It was our mom’s idea, that Rufus and I have taken over, and that our aunt Teddy Wainwright has produced for the last eight years. It’s really a reflection of the tendency we have in our songwriting to talk about our lives, to try to repair this broken family.”

On the phone from his New York apartment Friday morning, Rufus, who lives mostly in L.A., concurred.

“It’s in memory of our mom,” he said of the tradition, “and always brings up her sensibility and her way of regarding music, which was two-pronged: on the one hand it was something intense, accomplished and high-quality, but it was also the funnest thing to do in the world, and a way to be completely silly.”

Pictures by Ellen Qbertplaya from Noël Nights at Town Hall, which benefited Stand Up To Cancer, are below.

SETLIST: Noel Nights with Rufus & Martha Wainwright @ Town Hall 12/16/2018
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Full Family
Spotlight – Rufus + Family on BU vox
Boycotting Christmas – Teddy Thompson + Zak Hobbs
Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus – Teddy Thompson and Jenni Muldaur
Trois Anges – Martha Wainwright
Rebel Jesus – Lily and Sylvan
Falling Snow – Lily and Sylvan
Christmas Morning – Chaim Tannenbaum and Loudon Wainwright
River – Lucy Wainwright Roche
This Christmas – Joan Wasser
Coat of Many Colors – Emmylou, Jenni, Teddy + BU
Light in the Stable – Emmylou, Rufus, and Martha+Everybody
Burgundian Carol – Gigi & Isla Lead Vocal, Sylvan and Lily BU
Sister Winter – Sufjan Stevens with Rufus and Martha
Silver Bells – Martha, Sloan, Lucy & Jenni
Silent Night – Rufus, Jorn + (Everybody)
Proserpina – Sloan, Rufus, Martha and Everyone

INTERMISSION –

Old Waits – Lily & Syl Lanken, Jasmine Bleile & Toby Harper-Merrett (Everybody)
Maybe – Viva, Gigi, Isla (Plus Peter)
Mary Has a Baby – Martha
Merry Christmas Baby – Jenni Muldaur
Blue Christmas – Joan Wasser and Rufus
8 Nights A Week – Loudon Wainwright
Chanukah Song – Loudon Wainwright
Spoken Word – Hal Wilner and Band
Silver and Gold – Sufjan Stevens, Rufus
Xmas Wrapping – Martha & Lily and back up vox tbd
Little Town of Bethlehem – Emmylou + Rufus and Martha
Travelin on with Jesus – Chaim – Leads everybody on BU vox
Minuit Chretien – Rufus
Thank God It’s Christmas – Sloan Wainwright (+Everybody)
Screaming Issue – Loudon, Rufus, Martha and Lucy
Fairy Tale of NY – Martha and Rufus + Everybody