When Regina Spektor shyly walked on stage at Rams Head Live! last Wednesday night even the boyfriends who had been dragged to the concert by their girlfriends were entranced. It wasn't because Spektor looked particularly "hot" - besides her signature red lipstick her makeup was minimal, her shaggy hair lay unfettered on her shoulders, and the blue dress that fell loosely on her small frame resembled a lampshade.
Unlike most young performers these days, Spektor's appeal is in her talent. It was her sultry voice, provocative lyrics, and overall her fresh, utterly unique versatility that the whole audience found contagious.
A friend gave me one of Regina Spektor's latest CDs a couple months ago and told me I had to listen to it. I enjoyed the songs, recognized that they were fairly different from anything I'd heard before, but I wasn't hooked. It wasn't until I saw Spektor live last Wednesday on the first night of her current tour that I discovered just how impressive this singer/songwriter is. Spektor, a true performer, literally bounced around the stage from piano to electric guitar, all the while singing her own lyrics.
During one song, she simultaneously was playing the melody on the piano with her left hand and hitting the chair next to her with her right, while her accomplished voice skipped around from one octave to another. When she wasn't using instruments, such as during her first number, she was tapping the microphone as she sang.
Though Spektor impressed the audience with her ability to hop around, she also showed that she's not afraid of standing still for a while. As a singer, she seems to enjoy getting stuck on words. Beyond words' meanings, she truly appreciates their sounds. One otherwise trite word, such as "love" or "you," engrained itself in my head, even changed meanings, as she repeated it again and again in different tempos, octaves, and rhythms.
Along with her unique way of expressing words, Spektor has her own language of sounds. As if to lighten the mood of a somber song she would emit sudden odd sounds from her smiling mouth.
At the end of her first song about someone dying she groaned long enough so that the whole audience thought she was crazy and absolutely loved her all at once. While I can't quite identify all of her sounds, hiccups, ribbuts, and scats are a few words that come to mind.
Spektor's unique performance didn't stop with her noises. The actual words in her songs are not lyrics but narratives telling bizarre and entertaining stories. "Hey remember that time when I found the human tooth down on Delancey?" she sang while strumming an electric guitar.
Furthermore Spektor isn't afraid to slip in a political jab here and there. My favorite line of the night was during one particular narrative when she sang: "Maybe you shouldn't watch the 10 o'clock news - especially Fox 5."
During her encore Spektor branched out a bit by performing a very light and informal number, "Hotel Song," while her opener, Only Son, accompanied her with some singing and scats.
Spektor later returned to the piano to perform the John Lennon hit, "Real Love." Though I preferred listening to her sing her own music she certainly did Lennon's song justice, adding to it her own unique voice and style.
Regina concluded her performance with some of her most popular songs, including "Samson" and "Fidelity," two songs I recognized from the radio and the album my friend gave me. Everyone else at the concert knew the songs, too.
Both of the tunes essentially became free-for-alls. Though I was more interested in hearing Regina sing rather than the crowds of fans, it was sweet to see her enjoy her admirers' enjoyment. I caught myself joining in on a chorus or two, but only in case her glance turned to me, just so she'd know I was also taking pleasure in it all.
Spektor seemed thoroughly to be enjoying herself throughout her performance. She appeared equally proud of her music and humbled by the adoring girls screaming "I'm a lesbian for you, Regina!" I, a relatively new fan, felt that I was being transported into some new realm of innovative music as Spektor sang: "Come into my world, I've got to show, show, show you."
A mellow, yet addictive performer, Spektor proved herself to old and new fans that she and her quirky habits are going to stick around. With her signature hiccup and octave leap all contained in one word, Spektor sang: "...and it's contagiUHous," and we all agreed.
