Alyssa Fried March 12th, 2017 - 9:00 PM
Regina Spektor performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Saturday night, quelling her nerves over taking the big stage of the famed art deco venue by whispering to herself, “this is just like any other show.” It was not her first time here, but it was her first hometown show without her mom in the audience. With Mrs. Spektor home sick, Regina turned to the 6,000 or so fans assembled to cheer her on through her two-hour set, and they did not let her down. Professing their love throughout the evening in outbursts between songs, Spektor responded to nearly every one with a smile, a giggle or a kind word.
Spektor is touring in support of her latest album, Remember Us to Life, and performed nearly the entire album throughout the evening with the support of a string quartet, drummer and keyboardist. She also weaved in crowd favorites “On the Radio,” “Apres Moi” — a highlight of the evening played by Spektor solo on piano — “Better,” “Us” and more. Her voice is impressively strong live, perhaps even more so than on her albums. She sounded bold and more agile, trilling over high notes and punctuating her lyrics with a power easily forgotten given the endearing charm of her personality and trademark cuteness of some of her biggest hits.
The evening could have easily skated by in the safety of a lovely performance before an adoring audience, but Spektor took a moment to delicately address current fears and uncertainty, particularly in the Jewish community. The show coincided with the Jewish holiday of Purim, which celebrates the triumph of the Jewish people over a planned genocide in the early 5th-century BCE. She credited the heroes of the story with being able to “steer history away from something horrible,” and voiced her support to those fighting today to do the same. She continued, “I want to dedicate this song to resisting… to keeping our hearts and minds open.” She then performed “Ballad of a Politician,” passionately declaring, “a man inside a room is shaking hands with other men / this is how it happens / our world under command.”
Setlist
- On the Radio
- Grand Hotel
- Older and Taller
- Blue Lips
- Tornadoland
- Bleeding Heart
- The Light
- Apres Moi
- Chelsea Hotel #2 (Leonard Cohen cover)
- Ballad of a Politician
- Sailor Song
- You’ve Got Time
- The Trapper and the Furrier
- Black and White
- Sellers of Flowers
- Obsolete
- Small Bill$
- Better
- Ne Me Quitte Pas
- Us
Encore
- The Visit
- Fidelity
- Hotel Song
- Samson
