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CONCERT REVIEW: Regina Spektor @ Tower Theatre 5/12
Staring at the back of Regina Spektor's head all night gives you a lot of time to think about her lyrics.
CONCERT REVIEW: Regina Spektor @ Tower Theatre 5/12
Staring at the back of Regina Spektor’s head all night gives you a lot of time to think about her lyrics. She is, she remains, one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic songwriters out there. The poignant stuff gets cut with the funny stuff, only the funny stuff is kinda poignant, too. She’s just really good at laying it all out there: “This is how it works: You’re young until you’re not / You love until you don’t / You try until you can’t / You laugh until you cry / You cry until you laugh / and everyone must breathe / until their dying breath.”
The resigned and nostalgic “Call Them Brothers” — the first single from her coming-soon LP What We Saw From The Cheap Seats — is another oddball charmer: “In the darkness the film machine’s spinning / so let’s leave it on / We’ll be out in the street / before anyone knows that we’re gone.” I’m not sure what a “film machine” is, but there’s probably some other word for it. The song was co-written with Jack Dishel formerly of The Moldy Peaches and currently of openers Only Son, and Dishel joined her for a pristine but soulful rendition that pulled Spektor away from the Steinway for a second and allowed everybody on my side of the hall a rare glimpse of her smiling face. “Call Them Brothers” first appeared on Only Son’s Searchlight album last year. By the way, they played an alluring, high energy opening set. Worth checking out.
Spektor returned from the obligatory encore break to stomps, claps and cheers, an excuse to get us out of our seats and remember we’re at a rock show. She went with “Us” from her 2004 breakthrough Soviet Kitsch, a swooning and mesmerizing dreamboat of a song, and the one most people were yelling for all night. It’s just so damn sweet: “They’ll name a city after us / and later say it’s all our fault.” Even better: “They made a statue of us / Our noses have begun to rust.” See? Poignant and funny, all bouquet’d together.
There was a lot of yelling at this show, seemingly every between-song island of silence splashed with somebody declaring “I love you Regina!” No exaggeration, it must have happened 25 times at least. Hey, you love until you don’t.
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