Regina Spektor @ the Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, AZ
November 9th, 2007 - by Mark DiOrio
We packed up our piping hot, fresh out of the oven, cheeseburger puffs to eat in the car so we wouldn’t miss Regina Spektor at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. When we arrived we had a few burgers left we gave to a friendly homeless fellow adjacent to our parking spot.
I haven’t been to the Orpheum before. It is quite a place, not the standard beer splattered dark club I am used to.
Regina Spektor is a singer/songwriter/pianist born in Moscow and now resides in NYC. She came on stage and sang the first song A Capella, then went and tucked the piano bench under her dress and began to play.
She has an incredibly wide vocal range which produces many eclectic sounds such as clicks, growls and moans that I didn’t pick up on from listening to her album. She also mixed in some Russian sounding lyrics into a couple the songs she performed, unless I had too much to drink and was just imagining it. She even used a drumstick to tap on an adjacent chair at one point.
Regina had a great energy and mannerism. She sounded extremely courteous with a soft “thank you” after each song. I have only heard her most recent album so I didn’t recognize some of the songs she performed but they were all entertaining. Regina certainly doesn’t need the studio to sound good. She blew us away with her amazing live performance. This was an incredible show, always good to see something a little different.
Jump over to nyctaper for a quality recording of Regina’s entire October 16 stop at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:52 am
She sings a few lines in Russian in Apres Moi, which is on her newest album.. She also has another song that has some Russian in it, but she hasn’t been playing that one lately.