Regina Spektor in Boston . . . Spektacular

Twenty-nine years old and she's got a body of work more extensive than many songwriters can boast in a lifetime. Regina Spektor put on a generous display of her multiple talents for close to two hours tonight at the House of Blues. I got there a few minutes after 6:30 and the crowd was already wrapping around the corners of Lansdown Street. Doors opened at 7. The concert was supposed to begin at 8 p.m., which it did, but with an opening act. My ticket brought me to the "mezzanine" — a place with seats, I thought. Not. You have to stand against a railing and look toward the stage. I got there early enough to get a good view of the stage. And I waited until after 9 p.m. before she finally made her entrance. (Luckily, my bladder of an earlier posting cooperated for all those hours so I didn't have to lose my place at the railing.) She looked very happy on stage, comfortable, humble, but giggly because as she said midway through her performance, "I'm a lucky bastard!" to get to play her music to us. And we were very dedicated fans, most of the people in this huge crowd knew her songs word for word.


Wiped out tonight. Maybe I'll add some more details tomorrow along with some pictures from the weekend, but I had to get this news out to you, especially to my writer friends. I kept thinking, "Poetry is certainly not dead in Boston." Her fans, mostly in their 20s, love her poetic lyrics, her melodies, her subjects—ones that range from found wallets to the story of Samson and Delilah. She's playing again tomorrow night at the Orpheum. She played piano, electronic keyboards, an electric guitar, a chair, and during the last moments of her encore, a shofar.