Regina Spektor

The harsh, suffocating skyrises that indwell Birmingham’s urban quagmire may not seem like the most serene of backdrops for the arrival of anti-folk queen Regina Spektor, but this odd juxtaposition serves only to highlight the absurdities of life and it’s many meandering contrasts, the very things with which Spektor’s music concerns itself.

Deep within the city centre, in ‘Auditorium 2’ of The Glee Club, resides a haven away from the disparate urban jungle outside, a place where a performance can take on unrestricted turns of its own, as if it were rambling free over silent lakes and empty hillsides. It is here that the Russian pianist-cum-singer/songwriter and eccentric indie stalwart Regina performs to a hushed and gracious crowd.

‘Intimate’ is a word often used to a garnish descriptions of small venues, but never before has the term been more appropriate. Performing on a tiny thrust stage, but a few feet long, surrounded by seated on-lookers, the sense of integration is all consuming.

At times using a stool for a drum, at others merely tapping a beat on the tip of a microphone, her understated instrumental performance, coupled with her serene vocal inflections, meditates a haunting melancholy that is highly affecting and surreptitiously beautiful.

Songs from the forthcoming album, ‘Mary Ann meets the Gravediggers and other short stories by regina spektor’, sit well beside older pieces ‘Ode To Divorce’ and ‘Us’, weaving a musical tapestry of rich ingredient. Lyrical poeticism is thoroughfare throughout, with each tune soliciting tales of the everyday, seen through the eyes of our quirky young narrator.

Yet it’s not all just passive musical reflection, as Regina calls for audience participation on ‘Uh-merica’, a song about America’s self-pride in gun ownership, coercing people to chant the defining ‘UH!’ of the chorus.

After a modest curtsy, Regina leaves the stage as if carried off by a breeze, as swiftly as she came in. As people file out, returning to the concrete enigma of society outside, you can find solace in the knowledge that, yes, there is a lot to be explained about life around us, but thankfully you’re not the only one who’s realised how illogical it all is.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.