The funny thing about events scheduled for the start of any given month is that they sneak up on me. I don’t usually connect the end of one month with the start of another, and before I know it I’m going to see freaking Regina Spektor. How rad? So freaking rad.
For the first time in a dog’s age I showed up in time to enjoy all the supporting act. Fellow named Jack from New York playing under the name Only Son. He was there by himself with a guitar, and when he played songs that needed more than just his guitar, he used his iPod as a backing band. Writing it now, it looks a little lame, but rest assured it was not. He even had a couple of conversations with it. It was highly entertaining, and his songs were excellent enough that I bought his album The Drop to the Top, and now you folks get to hear the song “Quiet Surrender,” which comes from it.
And how was Regina, you ask? Take a wild freaking guess. She sold out a venue that hosts bands like Puddle of Mudd and the Shins, but managed to make it as intimate as a show at Kilby Court. Just her and her piano (a freaking Steinway), and us. The big drawback to that is that In the Venue doesn’t have a courtyard where people can go out and talk during the show, like Kilby does. A show without thunderous drums and electrically amplified instruments allows the performer to hear you a lot better. That’s pretty cool if they’re taking requests, pretty lame if they’re “Just a quiet girl with a piano and pretty bad ADD.” Thus we were told a few times to “shut the f* up” (the best of these was in between hallelujahs on “Baby Jesus”), but she also paused to listen to a train pass during “On the Radio,” saying after the song, “I’ve never heard a train during one of my songs before. In New York, I’ve felt the subway under my ass a few times, but never heard a train.” Other highlights include the chair as percussion on “Poor Little Rich Boy,” tapping the microphone for rhythm on “Ain’t No Cover,” Jack from Only Son beatboxing on “Hotel Song,” and Regina being generally incredibly cute. I wrote down the set as it happened, I’ll be blogging it soon. Stay tuned, and do yourselves a favour: If Regina is coming to your town, you freaking go!

Regina Spektor // Myspace // Buy Spektor

Only Son // MySpace // Buy The Drop to the Top

 Only Son - Quiet Surrender [3:07m]: Play in Popup | Download
 Regina Spektor - Consequence of Sounds [5:09m]: Play in Popup | Download