REGINA SPEKTOR

backdated regina spektor, for your pleasure!

REGINA SPEKTOR PLAYED FOR 2.5 HOURS.

I had the honor of attending the (Sold Out) concert at the Bowery (also my fav. concert venue and almost second home) on the 30th. I was going with a girl that I knew, but she had to come a little bit later, so I got there early to get a good place. Well, the doors opened like 30 minutes later than they said they would. The waiting area/ bar downstairs was totally packed. They finally got us in and I got a pretty good spot a little to the right of the center. I look around me and who is there, but another Columbia student. She lives on 7 (in my dorm). So I made a new friend. We saw Yoko Ono in the balcony about 10ft. up from where we were so that was cool. Looked around for the Strokes all night, but no such luck. Sean Lennon came out after a while and performed a (surprisingly) short set. I'd never heard any of his stuff, but it was actually pretty good. He looks strikingly like both of his parents, and has a good song writing capability. He also talks a lot. But most of it's pretty awkwardly funny, so he was entertaining. He played with another guitarist and pianist. He also played guitar and his last song was a solo piano number. His songs are good. He plays well. He sings well. It was very good altogether and probably one of the better opening acts I've seen. I'm not sure that he plays many shows or puts out many albums, so it was a treat to see him.

He left and then they set up the stage for Regina. Much to my chagrin, they put the piano in the middle of the stage, completely blocking the view of 65-70% of the audience on the floor. After a pretty long wait (considering how packed it was - even for Sean Lennon's set) Regina came out of the side door and smiled. I think she was happy to see that many people there... later she told us that she was afraid that it would be like a birthday party that everyone's invited to, but no one goes to. We all laughed.

For being so powerful, she really is a delicate person. She's very small and her personality is very cute. She started playing some songs with two guys playing bass (electric and upright) and then switched to just solo voice and solo piano songs. I never realized how much of a jazz singer she is, but a lot of the acapella songs she has show the (really amazing) quality of her voice. She kept her set list in a little notebook, only glancing at it occasionally. After a while she asked us how long she had been playing. She said that she had no idea, that she had just been playing her songs. Someone shouted out "it's 9:00!" which, of course, was a complete lie seeing as Sean Lennon didn't take the stage until a little after nine. Her response to that was "oh, you guys are tricky!" I heard a guy next to me mumble "9 - maybe on the west coast." I looked at my cell phone and suddenly realized that it was 12:06. She had taken the stage sometime in the hour of 10.

She played some more songs, some from Soviet Kitsch, but most from older albums. After a while she listened to what people were shouting and played the requests. Once during a song she messed up the piano part and said "hey, you asked for it!" After a while some other guys came out and answered my question of why there were multiple guitars and a drum set on stage - she played "Your Honor" live with a band (apparently for the first time ever) Regina was really excited to sing it live, and even more excited when it finished. She left the stage a few songs later, only to come out for an encore. She yelled at us. "I just found out that I played for 2 hours and 15 minutes! You tricked me! What the fuck?!" But of course she was smiling. She had to be happy about it. She was headlining at the Bowery for goodnesssake! She played about 2 or 3 songs for the encore. She refused Chemo Limo (which I expected, but was still disappointed) and she ended playing 2 songs on the guitar, and the medium switch was pretty cool.

Overall, it was a wonderfully serene experience. It was like floating on a cloud. I came back to school (about 130 am) and I didn't want to do any work. I just wanted to lay down and smile. Or hug someone. the concert was so pleasing. Unfortunately, a lot of people had to leave the concert early. A lot of the fans were from out of town and they had to catch trains and such. I also know that a lot of people's legs hurt (mine did too) but it was totally worth staying until the end. If you can catch her show, please do. Both she and I would be happy about it. And of course you would be happy about it, too.

The only flaw that I could find with the concert (that I think ended up being about 4.5 hours -half of which was just Regina playing) was that during her set she didn't mix the songs very well. She played tons of old stuff and there would be a block of old stuff, followed by a block of SK, etc. There wasn't much of a mix going on, which is a bit hard if you don't know all of her songs. Of course, they were all amazing, but there's definitely something to say about the concerts that you know every other song and the concert where you only know a song in every handful of songs.

Other than that, perfect! I'll definitely try to catch her again. And sorry it took me this long to write about it.

some more random pictures:

I know this one's blurry, but doesn't he look just like his dad?

Thanks to the great concertgoers that made these pictures possible: