Regina Spektor Goes Amnesiac For Bowery

TLC friend Shawn Mac sent us his hilarious review of Regina Spektor's gig at Bowery Ballroom last week. Enjoy the coverage below:

Don’t get me wrong. I LOOVE Regina Spektor, but tonight she made just enough mistakes while performing to make me stop being polite and start getting real.
Early in the show she giggled and warned the crowd that she’s “fucking nervous.” Aww, it’s ok Regina! We love and adore you! Then she forgot a verse of On the Radio, a single she’s performed at about every tour since the song’s conception, but the crowd cheered anyway. As it happened a second time she blamed the "teleprompter" and the crowd came to the rescue to sing the verse a capella. After finishing the song said “You guys sing, and I’ll just accompany you!” to wild applause. “This is what happens when you do a show every 5 months.” Oh.

Part of Lucky Penny was forgotten, words strategically placed with "fuck." Not too long before she’s forgiven, though. I mean wow, she is breathtaking to watch, and delightfully modest. But, I was less forgiving when she forgot the RUSSIAN verse to Apre Moi, which totally fucked up the entire climax of the song. I was starting to think a teleprompter might have been a good idea. When she did Us for her encore, the mic was still accidentally turned off. Yet the crowd just assumed she forgot the lyrics again and started singing to guide her. Was this a concert or a sing-a-long?

Sounds harsh, but the woman needs to get it together. I’ve seen her a lot of times before, and sure, she forgets songs sometimes…but it always astounds me how she can forget a song she performs so damn often. Granted the woman is a walking book of songs, with many floating around in her head unrecorded, and she does get so cute and nervous. She’s so damn cute, we just prod her along, lovingly, and hold our breaths as the does her thing. Just imagine us naked, Regina! Or maybe not. I wouldn’t be able to recite my own phone number if a sold out crowd was watching me in the nude.

«More photos Regina Spektor, The Bloodsugars and Ra Ra Riot at Bowery Ballroom»

MP3: Regina Spektor - Better or zShare

MP3: Ra Ra Riot - Ghost Under Rocks (Passion Pit Mix) or zShare

Blood Sugars:
Lead singer sported a curly haired mullet with a cute smile. Simple upbeat hooks with wedding singer sentiments and Jimmy Eats World-sque vocals. The keyboardist is gay and flaming, but with very overgrown [fake?] sideburns. With slightly upbeat, happy-go-lucky hooks, these guys have a place in your library, somewhere, if only for mindless background music. Like a band you’d hear in a 1980’s straight-to-VHS movie soundtrack on TBS at 4am, one random Sunday morning. Good bassist, though. Aggressive drummer.

Ra Ra Riot:
Driven, confident beats. Electric cello and violin, orchestra quality…these guys already have my attention. Dreamy music, reminiscent of The Cure. Brad can’t decipher the lyrics, therefore doesn’t like them as much (automatic point deduction for him.) Lead singer comes off as “sensitive.” Guitarist looks like an overgrown, 60’s version of McLovin. The Cellist literally shredded the hairs on her bow. She got a new bow for the next song, but more hairs started to break, so she just ripped the loose threads off mid-stride. That’s fucking hardcore.

I had this feeling like, “What does this song remind me of?” Couldn’t place it. Pen is drying up…fuck. Pretty good—with repeat listens, I could get into them.Brad: seemed pretty, instrumentally, but couldn’t get into them at all due to inaudible lyrics. (this is a huge pet peeve to brad…don’t mind him) After their set, I noted a very good crowd response. A photographer next to me remarked, “lowest low-rise jeans EVARRRR.” Was he talking about the cellist?

Regina Spektor