Пятница 30 Апр 2010, 3:20

Tue 27 Apr – Regina Spektor, Jupiter One

It seems like I tend to be attracted to super shy musicians. Judging by the bold quirkiness of her music, my preconceptions of Regina Spektor was that she was a confident, eccentric, outgoing lady… but in reality, she is incredibly soft spoken and child-like, and seemed a bit overwhelmed with performing in the Sydney Opera House concert hall, where the audience even packed out behind the stage so that she was surrounded 360 degrees. She admitted that this was the first time she had been surrounded for a show and told us it would be freaky if we turned hostile. She giggled, "So don't get hostile."

Her band members (cellist, violinist and drummer) also doubled as her support band Jupiter One (fronted by K Ishibashi). Regina performed most of the tracks from her latest album, Far on her Steinways & Sons grand piano, and then got up to move to her Yamaha keyboard to play the awesome Dance Anthem Of The 80's. The band then left the stage so she could perform solo for the rest of the set, starting with a jazzy acapella piece called Silly Eye Color Generalizations, not found on any of her five albums. She picked up her electric guitar to perform another unfamiliar one called Bobbin' For Apples, which had her continuously repeating the line "Someone next door's fucking to one of my songs". One of the things I love about her is the way she enhances the humour in her lyrics with sound effects that she makes with her voice, like the creaking of a bed or singing like a dolphin in Folding Chair.

While I do love her fun songs, my favourites would have to be her sensitive piano ballads, such as Summer In The City, Ode To Divorce and the beautiful Samson. I was lucky enough to have also seen Regina at the taping of the So You Think You Can Dance finale the week before where she performed Eet.. Man, that was such an amazing experience! I've been following her on her Facebook page, and it's so evident that she's genuinely in love with Australia, especially with the animals.

Check out her Triple J interview and Radiohead cover of No Surprises http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/triplej/tomalex/lav_reginaspektor_2010_04_30.mp3. At the moment she's working on a musical adaptation for Sleeping Beauty, due to open on Broadway over the next couple of years!

Setlist

Calculation
Eet
Folding Chair
Ode To Divorce
Machine
Laughing With
Two Birds
One More Time With Feeling
Better
The Sailor Song
Dance Anthem of the 80's
Silly Eye Color Generalizations (acapella)
Bobbin' For Apples (Someone Next Door Is Fucking To One Of My Songs)
That Time
Aprés Moi
Music Box
Sword and the Pen
Human Of The Year
Summer In The City

Encore:
Samson
Fidelity
Hotel Song
Love You're A Whore