Father John Misty Brings ‘Chloe’ to Its Ultimate Destination — New York’s Opulent Rainbow Room: Concert Review
Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor“The only way that this could be more elegant,” said Father John Misty as he surveyed the crowd in New York’s legendary Rainbow Room, a venue that epitomizes elegance, “is if we had three tables heaped with shrimp cocktails.”He wasn’t wrong.
The opulent venue, opened in 1934 and located on the 65th floor of 30 Rock, has multiple chandeliers, a sunken, circular dancefloor and a 15 or so floor-to-ceiling windows offering breathtaking views of Midtown Manhattan and beyond, with the Empire State Building’s nightly light show occasionally distracting from the performance onstage.
It is an inspired and more than perfect setting for the man also known as Joshua Tillman to perform his fifth and latest album as Father John Misty, “Chloe and the New 20th Century,” released last Friday, which finds him paired with the kind of big-band musicians who used to occupy this stage regularly back in the day. (Read Variety‘s review of the album here.) While no one wore tuxes, he nonetheless took the concept to its fullest: some 15-odd musicians were sprawled across the stage and beyond, with guitarists, keyboardists, and a rhythm section accompanied by horns, a string quartet and even a tympanist.
The group performed the entire album in sequence in front of a full red velvet curtain that spanned the entire side of the room, with giant old-time-movie spotlights facing the crowd and off to the sides.In the middle of the early set, the word “curtains” was heard squawking from a stagehand’s walkie-talkie, and on cue the curtains opened, revealing a cloudy Manhattan skyline at dusk; many audience members abandoned their hard-won spots to gaze at the view.
