The Justice

The frequent screams of "I love you Regina" seemed somehow cheapened by the audience's total lack of respect for the charming Spektor as she performed at Student Events' fall semester show last Saturday night in Gosman. Regina endured, gently pleading with the sold-out (1,900 tickets) crowd to quiet down and let her continue with the set. "The ones who are talking," she urged, "there are others who are not. … Go somewhere else."

Despite the incessant problem of crowd chatter, the show went forth in high style, and, if nothing else, the ill-mannered audience members provided ripe opportunity for Spektor's adorable on-stage persona to shine through. Regina, born in Moscow and raised in Brooklyn, is an artist who truly seems to love and appreciate her fanbase. She simply did not allow the problems of poor sound quality and rude audience members to impede her dynamic vocals and thoughtful piano parts. She did after all follow her hour long set with a mesmerizing five-song encore, which included some of the best tunes of the night.

The program began with an opening set from singer and rumored Regina boyfriend "Only Son" (né Jack Dishel), who sang a series of Postal Service-esque ditties, complete with sequenced iPod backing. His prerecorded conversations with himself mostly served to highlight the fact that his performance fell only a few notches above karaoke, especially when considering that he was playing rhythm guitar parts under prerecorded solos. Dishel's actual contribution to the concert would come during Regina's encore in which he beat-boxingly backed her on "Hotel Song."

Following the underwhelming opener, and six or seven failed slow-claps, Regina finally took the stage with her signature wide smile, and greeted the eager crowd with an ironic and cheerful, "Good morning." Her 23-song set then began with an a cappella "Ain't No Cover" followed by the crowd-pleasing "On the Radio." Despite the noisy crowd, Regina pushed forth with a shy shushing or two, though obviously and most understandably annoyed.

Major highlights came during the chair-beating goodness of "Poor Little Rich Boy" and sparse guitar-based "That Time," though the latter left me longing for the addition of her touring band. Indeed, the three-piece band with whom Regina often tours may have been the only thing missing from the evening. The fleshed-out sounds provided by the drum and bass not only add the dynamics needed to help separate each song from the next, but also would have served to bolster the noise level and maybe, just maybe, to get the crowd to shut up.

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