Concert Review- Regina Spektor

HERE'S MY REVIEW OF REGINA SPEKTOR'S PERFORMANCE AT TOWN HALL ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2006 FOR MY CONCERT MANAGEMENT COURSE.

Regina Spektor adopts the exact stage personality you imagined she would when listening to her music on CD. Piano playing with attitude, coupled with pure and light vocals, and a demure execution of clever lyrics. As she entered the stage of the theater-size venue, she moved through the dim lighting towards the microphone, without speaking a word of introduction, and began singing a cappella, her vocals soaring and reverberating throughout the theater. The packed, sold-out audience was captivated and hanging on every word. Before we knew it, she began tapping rhythmically on the microphone, creating a dramatic echo to go along with her lyrics. After completing the song, it took a moment for the audience to recover from the intense first performance and give a thunderous applause.

When Spektor arrived at “The Flower Song” off her “Soviet Kitsch” album, lights were projected onto the back wall of the stage in flower form, really setting the mood for the song. In addition, pink and yellow lights flashed vertically as Spektor reached the higher points in her songs, almost lifting the notes of the music off the page. One last touch was the blue lights moving in wave-like motion when “Sailor Song” was played.

One of Spektor’s strong points is her ability to transition from musician, to comedian, to rock star throughout the show. She takes a very theatrical approach to singing, with incredible timing, knowing where to place her words most effectively. The performance of her comic storytelling lyrics made the audience chuckle just as much as hum. At certain points she would be intensely playing a complicated piano composition, and then she would stop for dramatic effect, and lightly whisper “Someone next door’s fucking to my song” or something random and provocative like that. The audience cracked up and at certain points it was obvious that Spektor let out a laugh in response to the audience’s amusement.

Midpoint into the concert, she walked from the piano to the back of the stage to shyly put on her electric guitar. And then she transitioned into rock star, singing about stars OD’ing and such. Her band later joined her to add an extra element to the concert.