I went up to London to see Regina Spektor at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I’m not intimate with the details of Regina Spektor’s career, but it seemed a big step up from seeing her almost a month ago at the Concorde 2 in Brighton.
You could tell she was buzzing when she first sat down at the piano – Grande, Steinway, not keyboad. “This is niiiiiice” she exclaimed in baby Spektorish. Obviously tired of dive bar venues (um.. Leadmill, Sheffield) and fired up from playing The V festival at the weekend, she gleefully ripped through the first 3 numbers. She took more risks than the Brighton gigs and revealed the playful prodigious quality that makes her so special.
When she unscrewed the top off her water at the end of each song I was saying “Baby you have arrived now. You can have someone set up glasses of water for you” .. “hey you can even through them into the crowd like Freddy” she was that good and it was that special.
The greatest performers manage to maintain that intensity. Regina has more to learn still, but we had glimpses of her versatility of new directions she could take, like when she turned off the Regina voice and belted out a blues number. And judging by the videos that she is producing I’m sure stage sets on future tours will be interesting. This was a very special night.
..
Update
OK she HAS played the Empire before. In January. There is a review here:
http://www.musicomh.com/gigs2/regina-spektor_0206.htm
also see
http://www.thunderchunky.co.uk/regina-spektor.html
