Regina Spektor @ State Theatre
Posted on September 12th, 2009 – 12:47 AMBy Jon Bream
It was the opening night of Regina Spektor’s North American tour and she seemed nervous and tongue-tied (her description, which was accurate). She screwed up a couple of times (she apologized to her three sidemen) and blurted, “This is just like my life — except with lights.”
Spektor, 29, didn’t command the stage quite like she did in her previous Twin Cities appearances (the Myth in 07 and Varsity in 06), and she seemed more insecure and immature, which had a certain charm to it (but that wore thin after a while). In fact, the sellout crowd of mostly teen and 20-something women were charmed, responding with gleeful screams throughout the 85-minute performance. (Didn’t we all know of someone like Regina in high school — that artsy, nerdy, goofy, nervous-y outcast with major talent whom no one seemed to understand.)
For about half the tunes, Spektor was accompanied by a drummer, a cellist and a violinist. Her solo numbers were on grand or electric piano, and electric guitar. It took her about a half-dozen songs to kind of find her intensity, which she did on “Ode to Divorce,” when she became lost in her singing. Too often she seemed to be thinking about her own cleverness instead of merely singing. Her pacing was a little off, too, especially ending the main set with the slow “Man of a Thousand Faces.”
Spektor was terrific during her encore, showing consistent passion as well as delightful musical diversity, covering everything from rich piano pop to 1960s-flavored novelty to a Russian hoedown.
Here is Spektor’s set list:
The Calculation/One More Time with Feeling/???/Machine/Two Birds/Laughing With/Ode to Divorce/Blue Lips/On the Radio/Dance Anthem of the 80s/Bobbin’ for Apples/That Time/Apres Moi/Poor Little Rich Boy/Lacrimosa/Man of A Thousand Faces
ENCORE Samson/Us/Hotel Song/Fidelity/Love, You’re a Whore
9 Responses to "Regina Spektor @ State Theatre"
I believe the song that you have missing on the set list is Eet.
I thought it was an amazing concert. You could tell she was nervous, I thought that she wasn’t feigning nervousness at all.
For me the only thing that annoyed me at the concert were the totally trashed people spasticly dancing at the front right of the floor.
Yeah, the song you’re missing is Eet.
This was my first time seeing her in concert and I thought she used that nervousness to her advantage and made it cute/quirky.
She is much more beautiful live than she is in pictures, I was stunned. And her voice is just beyond amazing.
It is nice to see people that love her music, but getting wasted and dancing (nothing wrong with dancing, just their’s was…something else) up front really took it too far.
I went to the Myth two years ago and was really bummed to not hear Love, You’re a Whore. Glad she played it this time, but sad I missed it.
Regina’s performance was wonderful. She may have been a little nervous or whatever but never uninspired. There are very few artists that can win a crowd over by the tiniest inflections of their voice and light up an audience with quirky little utterances. Her insecurity as Mr.Bream calls it never wore thin on me and she had won me over from start to finish. Of course I was just a tipsy teenage girl …oh wait I’m a 34 year old male. Just like the guy behind me and the 50 something couple in front of me. I did see alot of 20 somethings and teenagers as well who had the excitement and energy similar to the woman they came to see. Being critical of Regina for not putting on a scripted and preconcieved show is a little bit redundant isn’t it? Perhaps Mr.Bream would be more comfortable at the Target Center watching one of the pop princesses the music business churns out on a frequent basis. (back up dancers and all) Then he could ogle all the jailbate ass that he is so quick to acknowledge instead of actually watching the performance. All the while sitting there in judgement and then writing a pretentious review. I found Regina Spector’s performance to be genuine, thoughtful, and full of soul. I got what I expected, which was to have a shared experience with a brilliant and creative artist as opposed to sitting there with arms crossed thinking “entertain me now.” The entire show felt spontanious and from the heart and I couldn’t have been more pleased with her performance.
Nice review Jon - Before she played the Myth and Varsity here in the Twin Cities her first show was in the Quest Ascot Room.
her first Mpls show was actually at the 7th Street Entry in April 2005 touring off of Soviet Kitsch
Kate has that right.
Hi hello and whats up?!
Im new here so i thought id drop by and show myself. i love movies!!! anywayz laters
Intresting, this was actually a very great read! thanks
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