Throat setback fails to spoil Regina Spektor show

By: Jamie Casey –

Manchester “feels exactly as it should” according to Regina Spektor, as she addresses a dampened crowd on a typically wet Wednesday night in the north of England.

Sweet, yet seductively sophisticated, the 32-year-old perches on her suede-laden stool and embarks on opening tracks Ain’t No Cover and The Calculation, and it’s not long before the crowd shake off the raindrops and warm to her charm.

Fortunately for those in attendance, the Manchester Apollo is a small, intimate venue and, thus, the gloom of receiving a soaking en route to the gig is soon forgotten, with pursuing tracks On The Radio and Small Town Moon proving much more memorable.

Mass hand-clapping to the beat of Regina’s quirky, piano-based tunes is a continuous feature, as is her appreciation for an audience lauding her every note, including occasional bouts of peculiar, beatbox-like vocals.

Blue Lips and Eet feature prominently – as does a delicate duet with husband and Only Son frontman Jack Dishell, whose new band opened for tonight’s main act – before the show takes a turn for the worse as Regina suffers an apparent strain to her vocal chords.

Clutching her throat in clear agony after struggling through Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas), taken from her 2012 album What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, the multi-instrumentalist is forced to excuse herself while she seeks a remedy for the predicament.

With the remainder of the show in doubt, a painful pause of around 15 minutes concludes with Regina returning to the stage sporting an apologetic smile and her trademark red lipstick as bright as it’s been all night.

Doubling up as an improvised encore, the reception is rapturous and swiftly acknowledged by the “extra grateful” queen of quirk, who surpasses expectations in performing a further six tracks.

Although the carefully picked concluding numbers are noticeably less vocally demanding, Regina still manages to pitch her voice to unorthodox highs. Evidently wincing in pain, though, the Russian-born American loses a fraction of her on-stage persona.

However, the large proportion of females in the audience is on hand to offer their collective oral support, particularly with Fidelity, while the smitten males admire from afar as a chilling version of Samson closes a most diversely entertaining set.

 Regina Spektor set-list

1. Ain’t No Cover
2. The Calculation
3. On the Radio
4. Small Town Moon
5. Ode to Divorce
6. Blue Lips
7. Patron Saint
8. How
9. All the Rowboats
10. Eet
11. Call Them Brothers
    (with Only Son)
12. The Prayer of François Villon (Molitva)
13. Dance Anthem of the 80’s
14. Better
15. Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)
    
    Encore:
16. Oh Marcello
17. Ballad of a Politician
18. Firewood
19. The Party
20. Fidelity
21. Samson