Regina Spektor. I was supposed to see her in New York.
When the time came I sold the ticket and walked around instead.
Buying a ticket to the Dublin concert was a balancing decision.
I've become slightly less comfortable at concerts.
The same thing happened last year, but with cinemas.
Not sure why...
I went straight from work. No-one I know knows Ms. Spektor.
So I brought no-one. Arrived a little early. Had to stand around a while.
Nearly got to sit on the crazy box at the back, but they turned it into a t-shirt shop.
Support was a guy called
Jeffrey Lewis.
He was good. Probably would have been more fun with his band.
There was more standing around. I noticed the "here we go" signal from a guy on the stage. A point was made to observe the entrance from the first possible moment. I did the same on exit - paying particular attention for no real reason. I had no expectations of how Regina would look. She looked very interesting. More animated that I expected. Happy.
The gig was nice. It was a bunch of people barely moving as they listened to Regina Spektor sing (and play piano, hit chair, hit the mic with her finger then fingers). Her singing was excellent. Her voice is excellent, but the little extra bits make it count. The show was better than the records I'd heard. Not sure why...
There was a fast double encore. In the meantime Regina was interrupted by leaking Arcade Fire, given a Guinness, given some cookies. She played dead (badly), smiled a lot, told stories, talked about being mistaken for Irish. It was an eventful evening.
The concert ended. I slipped out of Whelan's and got the train home.