Fangirling Of the Highest Order

Thursday night Jim and I went to see Regina Spektor at the House of Blues. It was a most excellent show, and my unending love for her continues utterly unabated. (Alliteration woo!)

Below the cut is the full recap, which is probably monumentally boring and will contain an overuse of exclamation points that would make my normal grammar-conscious self wince forever. But Regina is granted an exception.

Short form: Regina = Love.

Click below for the total recounting


(Note: So almost a year ago to the day, Regina played at the Gypsy Tea Room. I went back and dug up my old post on the subject, and it's surprising how well I conveyed my feelings on that night. It literally was the best concert I've ever been to. This one was not as great as that one, but it was still damn good. Anyways. )

The concert was at 7:30 at The House of Blues. Not only did we manage to make it down to the West End in time to get dinner, we made it into the theatre before Only Son (the opening band) started up. (Although there was a slight delay when one of the security guards tried to kill Jim, by zapping his cyborg heart.) After navigating past the rogue agent (without Jim punching anyone, which was nice of him) we had a pretty nice vantage spot to see the whole show, by luck picking the right side of the stage to see Regina while she was on the piano. And we didn't even have to push anyone to get it.

Only Son was alright, with almost the exact same set and spiel as last year, practically verbatim. There was a new little bit where he had a prerecorded conversation with his iPod (who needs a band to back you up when you have an iPod? Not this guy, that's for sure), which bordered on horrifyingly twee, but still managed to land on the side of cute and quirky. Barely.

He raced through his set and then we only had to wait for Regina about 15 minutes.

Things that were strange and/or annoying about her show:
- The guy who brought his 5 year old child to the show, and proceeded to push as far forward as possible with her up on his shoulders. Not that Regina isn't awesome, but she's not exactly child appropriate. Luckily they bolted within a couple of songs.
- The two giant girls who pressed up into the crowd to reach their "friends," only to stop when they got directly in between Jim and myself and said "Oh well." And then just stood there. It was bizarre and sort of angering, especially since I couldn't move to stand by Jim without placing myself immediately behind some 6'5" behemoth. Concert courtesy, people! Where has it gone?(although better news on that later.)
- The fact that the HOB kept kicking the air conditioning off and on throughout the whole show. We were packed in there tight, you'd think they would go ahead and just keep the cooling coming. A sweaty crowd is no one's friend.

Things that were good:
- The crowd, which was very well-behaved for a concert-going crowd. Almost literally silent while Regina was playing the quiet stuff, except for the singing along to the popular songs. And even then, there was none of that horribly loud obnoxious sing-along that I could hear. Plus, no excessively annoying "Woo!"-ing in the middle of songs, which is my #1 pet peeve at concerts. I mean, there was some, but nothing too egregious. Even the shouted declarations of love and marriage proposals during the song breaks seemed more sweet and less intrusive than usual.
- Our immediate neighbors in the crowd (excepting the two large interlopers above) who were all very fun and sympathetic, particularly the tiny girl who stood next to me and commiserated over the couple standing nearby who were making out almost constantly throughout the show.
- The venue itself, which while less personal than the Gypsy Tea Room, gave: excellent lighting throughout, very good sound, more airy space, and easy access to the bar from the stage.

Things that were excellent:
Regina (obviously), who was as usual ridiculously cute and chock full of talent (although a little quieter than usual in terms of crowd participation. It was a clock-work like show, very little patter between songs).
Set list and comments to follow:

1. Ain't No Cover
2. On the Radio (an excellent rendition, not too fast or slow)
3. Sailor Song
4. Baby Jesus (one of my favorite songs, and better than any version I have currently. More enunciated than usual, and just so cute and quirky)
5. One More Time With Feeling (which I only had one (sort of bad) recording of, and which is an amazing song. Anyone who has a clear recording of this one needs to get in touch with me asap)
6. Music Box (memo to Large Girl #1: you are not allowed to call yourself a "Huge Regina Spektor fan" if you announce during this song "Hey, isn't this from that commercial?!" Unless you were meaning Huge in a sheer volume sort of way. In which case: Totally.)
7. Flowers
8. Better (sweet damn, seriously, I'm not sure words can express how much I love this song.)
9. Bobbing For Apples (this is the reason why 5 year-olds should not be at a Spektor concert, see video below)
10. That Time (on the guitar! Very impressive, as last year she didn't really seem all that confident on it)
11. Après Moi (that Russian bit in middle is always shockingly good live. She gets some serious emotion going on in this one.)
12. Blue Lips (!!! Seriously! I love this song, and never in a million years thought I would ever see it live. Amazing!)
13. Summer in the City (A battle for my favorite song (with Better) and this one may actually win out. The lighting on this one was particularly good, and it's at least 50 times better live than on the album. I'm pretty sure it was also right around here that Jim gave me the 'Jason's Crazy' look, as I still had yet to wipe the goddamn goofy grin off my face since the concert had started.)
14. A Lesson in How Fleeting Preservation Is (it seems like a strange song for a concert, as it's kinda obscure and sort of just abruptly ends, but still cool. I mentioned earlier about her emotion - on a lot of these non-Begin to Hope songs she really brought her A-game. This and Once More With Feeling, in particular. When Regina is feeling a song, people best watch out. You get chills.)
15. Ghost of Corporate Future ("Especially Fox!" I assume it's a standard line now, but man it cracked me up)
16. Real Love (as usual, amazing)

Encore
17. Us (While usually one of my favorites, I was not feeling this one at all that night)
18. Uh-merica (!!! Audience participation! I almost died, it was so cute.)
19. Fidelity
20. Hotel Song (w/ Only Son) (Probably the highlight of the entire show, and redeemed the boy entirely for me, as it was so cute and hilarious. I really like it when it seems like the performers are enjoying themselves, and they looked like they were having a ball.)
21. Field Below
22. Samson

And to top it all off, it was incredibly easy to get out afterwards, and over to Greenville for a quick night of light drinks and catching up with old friends.

As usual, Regina is the best thing ever!

Need visual proof?



(end fangirling)