Regina Spektor shows Chicago how Far she has come in her long-awaited return

September 12, 2009, at the Chicago Theatre

By Selena Fragassi
Published: September 14th, 2009 | 11:33pm

“Look at all of us in this fancy, fancy theater,” a smitten Regina Spektor said as she squinted past the bright stage lights toward the opulent tiers of filled-to-the-brim seating in the historic Chicago Theatre. One of the city’s defining venues for an artist, Spektor seemed just as surprised as many ticket buyers that she could not only play the noted venue, but sell it out. After all, this is the same singer who toiled for five years before receiving due attention on 2006’s breakthrough Begin to Hope (Sire) and took a near-eternal three more years before releasing this year’s Far— a rare sophomoric absence that could have subjected her to sudden artist death syndrome.

Judging by the constant interruption of high-pitched screams, “I love you’s,” and a random “You’re so smart!” cat call from over-zealous fans who graced Spektor with a standing ovation before she even hit her first note, the 29-year-old has nothing to worry about.

Dressed in a swing-era floral number with her ringlets and lips nearly the same shade of red, the Soviet-born Spektor looked like a doe-eyed ingénue out of a McCalls pattern catalog, yet sang and played her glistening piano with the voracity of a resurrected Maria Callas. The comparison and the setting of the evening worked in Spektor’s favor as both added an operatic overtone to her one-in-a-million vocal range, and a sense of theatrics and drama to the equally ranging emotions that she culled from disparate songs about love, heartbreak, and the plights of make-believe characters pulled from her imagination.

Even in the grandeur of the night Spektor never lost the sense of intimacy that her audience, made up of an unsurprising number of couples, craved. Backed by a modest orchestra of cello, violin, and piano, the night began with an impressive portfolio of new material — from the bubbly sparkle of “The Calculation” to the dark, futuristic electro “Machine” which paired stark green spotlights for an Orwellian warning signal of danger ahead.

Perhaps the most compelling number of the night though was new single “Laughing With,” a somber deep thinker that catapulted Spektor into a metamorphosis beyond the mid-range of radio-friendly songwriter to the high-brow maturity of a definitive artist in her prime. More than poetic license was Spektor’s uncanny ability to broadcast her lyrics by mastering the instrumentation of her voice in speed, style, and quality for a beatbox rhythm and folk-infused rapping.

The 21-song set list was also ripe with juicy fan favorites like “Samson,” “Fidelity,” and “On the Radio” which was provided the only error of the night. “My set list says the next song is ‘On the Patio,’” she giggled before leading the masses into a deafening clapping exercise.

After Spektor moved from her piano bench to keyboards for “Dance Anthem of the ‘80s,” she picked up an electric blue guitar for “Bobbing for Apples.” Repeating the lyrics “Someone next door is fucking to one of MY lyrics” with a sense of pride and entitlement, Spektor proved that she deserves how Far she has come by not selling herself short of being able to fill the same venue that has hosted all the greats before her.

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Regina Spektor official site

Regina Spektor MySpace page

Sire Records