Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Sunday July 8, 2018 :
“I can feel the world spinning. I know it’s always spinning, but I can feel it tonight.”
Returning to our shores for the first time in six years, Regina Spektor made a truly scattered entrance onto Hamer Hall’s stage. The sold-out performance promised a collection of career spanning hits, presented in an incredibly special solo performance – all in the name of giving Melburnians a taste of New York City as part of the MEL & NYC winter festival.
Though her entrance was shaky, once Spektor took her place behind the grand piano and steadied herself, her performance was anything but. Launching into the peppy chord progression of ‘Folding Chair’, the beaming audience began to nod in approval. If anything, Spektor’s voice has only become better with age. From the moment she opened her mouth, the room was truly mesmerised.
What followed was an absolutely delightful highlight real of the Russian-born, New Yorker’s back catalogue. While she spent most of the evening perched behind the piano, she did treat the room to a few of songs via the electric piano and guitar – throwing a couple of acapella tracks in for good measure. Early highlights included ‘Older and Taller’ from 2016’s Remember Us to Life (with Spektor filling in for the track’s booming floor tom with cutesy claps), as well as the scuzzy guitar rock of ‘That Time’.
As the night progressed, Spektor returned to her position behind the piano to cover John Lennon’s ‘Real Love’, before launching into a run of well-known classics. While the encore performance of ‘Samson’ received the biggest round of applause of the night (and a standing ovation), Spektor’s performance of 2003’s ‘Us’ was the real highlight of the show.
There’s something truly special about a performer as enigmatic as Spektor. Much like New York City, it’s impossible to distill what makes her so intoxicatingly addictive. She just has it. “And it’s contagious.”
Photographer and Reviewer : Cormack O’Connor
