Yes, even at the release of her fifth full-length album, “Far”, Regina Spektor is still freaking adorable. Her tour for the album has been on the road since September, and Friday, November 6th marked the date of her performance at In The Venue in Salt Lake City, and You! Listen! Now! was there to get a glimpse of the adorable-ness.

Ok, so as you can tell from the photo, it wasn’t too clear of a glimpse, but I was glad I was there nonetheless. This was a bit of a different kind of concert than In The Venue is usually host to; normally I can just show up anywhere in the crowd and, by process of mosh pitting and dancing around, somehow wind up very close to the stage. This definitely was not the case with Regina, even though she had some upbeat tunes on her setlist (see the last song on the setlist down below).

This wasn’t really a problem, however; the show still rocked the house very much. The last time Regina came by Salt Lake was a couple years ago, although in contrast to this year, she was by herself. From what I’ve hear, that particular show was a pretty terrible one, not because of how she played, but because of how rude the audience was. The crowd got so talkative during her set that she literally incorporated “shut the fuck up” into her songs at will.

This time around, however, she had a cellist, violinist, and amazing drummer to back her up and (though this probably wasn’t intentional) overpower the crowd sound-wise. The group all played wonderfully together and really pulled off a great sound during their performance. Definitely a good choice on Regina’s part.

Around halfway through the set, however, her backup band left her alone on stage to do a number of songs by herself, the first of which was a pretty awesome a capella song about the color of people’s eyes. She then grabbed a guitar to play a couple songs as well, showing off some skills with “Bobbing for Apples” and “That Time”.

I think the height of her solo section, however, was during “Poor Little Rich Boy”, where she wound up singing, playing piano with one hand, stomping on the platform she was on for a beat, and hitting a chair with a drumstick in her other hand. It was a pretty awesome display of a side of her that fans who only know of her newest, slightly more mainstream album have probably not seen.

Though the show was a little pricey ($35…ouch), it was most definitely worth the money in my opinion. There’s something that’s just so fun about this woman’s music that you can’t really get out of any other artist. Plus, her collaborations with the rest of the band worked out perfectly to make it an even better time.

Regina Spektor has come quite a long way, and it’s truly great being able to see that in her performance. You can check out the setlist, along with a few songs from her new album down below:

1. Calculation
2. Eet
3. Folding Chair
4. Ode to Divorce
5. Machine
6. Laughing With
7. One More Time With Feeling
8. Blue Lips
9. On The Radio
10. Dance Anthem of the 80’s
11. Silly Eye Color Generalizations (a capella song)
12. Bobbing for Apples
13. That Time
14. Apres Moi
15. Poor Little Rich Boy

Encore:

1. Man of 1000 Faces
2. Samson
3. Us
4. Fidelity
5. Love, You’re a Whore (country jam song)

Thanks for checking this one out guys!

Make sure to tune in tomorrow for a Showtime! post from the Dirty Projectors show from last night :)

Much love to all of you!

Y!L!N!