Regina Spektor @ Empire Theatre, Liverpool, 7 Aug

From Russia via The Bronx, the singular singer-songwriter brings a career-spanning set to Liverpool

Live Review by Joe Goggins | 10 Aug 2017

Regina Spektor’s onstage in Liverpool tonight, in the opulent surroundings of the Empire Theatre, and she’s struggling.

An over-enthusiastic member of the otherwise impeccably behaved audience just shrieked out a line in Sailor Song – “Mary Anne’s a bitch!” – a touch too early, and very loudly. Spektor, who like the rest of the crowd likely jumped out of her skin, is knocked off her stride. There’s a couple of seconds of silence. Then another shout from the other side of the stalls. “C! F! C!” booms a Liverpudlian accent. For a brief moment, you’re wondering whether this is going to descend into chaos. And anyway, what’s a scouser doing shouting for Chelsea Football Club? At a Regina Spektor concert?

And then he finishes his outburst. “C! F! C! F! C! B sharp! F minor!” Just a friendly reminder of what the chords were. “Thank you, musician person!” she beams, and then she’s off again. Presumably that’s not the exact type of intimacy she had in mind when she booked this ‘An Evening with Regina Spektor’ tour, which sees her play two hours with no support in handsome theatres, but it worked this time anyway. In actual fact, tonight’s set – still in support of last year’s Remember Us to Life – doesn’t differ a great deal from the one she played last November at Manchester’s considerably more rock'n'roll Albert Hall.

What that means is that we get a career-spanning set eventually, but begin with a slew of Remember Us to Life cuts that are tastefully presented, with Grand Hotel the highlight. Spektor is a master storyteller and that, you suspect, is why her band are so minimalist and unobtrusive – you wouldn’t want anything to detract from the swinging romance of Us, or the rolling drama of Bleeding Heart. 

Her deviations from the piano usually lead to her hamming things up, and Small Bill$ especially is a spectacular misfire in that respect tonight, but a fierce solo version of That Time proves she’s well capable of pulling off a swagger when she wants to – as does a much rockier rendition of You’ve Got Time than the studio version, which serves as the theme to Orange is the New Black. Spektor is a bit of a one-off in terms of how her catalogue diverts stylistically so often, so to pull together a setlist that does it justice requires skill. Aided by the grandeur of the venue, she pulls it off.

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