a russian & possible giants: two reviews

regina spektor.
they might be giants.
two concerts, two venues.

one night.

done.

{as sadly becoming common to my posts, this was actually written on nov. 8, two days after the concerts. videos took forever to upload *sigh*}

regina spektor highlights:

-she couldn't stop smiling; neither could we
-it was fun to be with zach at his first concert
-regina: "you guys are sorta the best part of my day!"
-played lots of my favorites, plus new stuff
-variety: she played a beautiful piano, a keyboard, just sang while others accompanied, and played a sweet blue guitar (however, that guitar was stained with not-so-great songs later...boo.)
-she had the band who opened for her play with her as well for the first and last parts of the concert. it consisted of a violinist, cellist, and drummer. i LOVE those instruments along the piano that she played. beautiful.

*i apologize for the shaky videos and quality. it really was so packed in there. hope you can enjoy them anyway!




downsides: (sorry, i've gotta stick 'em in this time)
-in the venue was super dooper crowded, so it was hard to see
-my camera wasn't cooperating, so i didn't get great pictures/videos
-i had a pretty bad headache (on top of the cold that i hadn't gotten over)
-she liked to swear....like...a lot. not just swear, but she used the 'f' word frequently. i was pretty disappointed about this. i can tell she's a very sweet, very genuine person, and she seemed genuinely happy we were all there to support her. her other favorite phrase was "thank you so, SO much!". however, i couldn't ignore the fact that somewhere down the road she's traveled, that language has crept into her vocabulary that she would say it so often. it saddened me, because some of the lyrics she's sung have been my favorites in all...lyricdom. like, ever. but other songs were just spattered with that word, and it was quite sad to see the difference. i still love regina as a musician and think she's a charming person, but i didn't enjoy being there when she started frequently doing that.

one of my favorite regina lyrics----

no, this is how it works:
you peer inside yourself
you take the things you like
and try to love the things you took
and then you take that love you made
and stick it into some --
someone else's heart
pumping someone else's blood
and walking arm in arm
you hope it don't get harmed
--but even if it does,
you'll just do it all again.

{from "on the radio"}

but boy, can that girl sing. i absolutely love her voice. love love. it was angelic to hear. really.

-----------

we didn't stay long after, though, because then we were off to see they might be giants!


it was my first 21+ concert. i felt so grown-up (go ahead and laugh now. nogo on. i'll wait). and it was at the depot, only a few minutes away from in the venue where the regina concert was. luckily, by this point, my headache was mostly gone, although my sickness had started to make itself known again.

we got there just in time for them to sing cowtown! i LOVE that song!!! it was way fun. we saw jeff right in front, along with mark and tim, and other fabulous people i don't know super well (but still fabulous, i could tell). and we were right next to the stage. like, 2nd row (if there were chairs).

jeff was already dancing and it was contagious. we joined.

we'd missed half the concert already, but the last part was still totally worth it. (to read a good detailed post about the whole concert, visit jeff's post!) good music, good friends, super tons of energy from the band. it wasn't so crowded, which was nice, so we could dance and actually breathe!

turns out that tmbg recorded their 'flood' album 20 years ago from that date: nov. 7. so, they performed the entire album! i sang along with the songs i knew, followed along with the catchy ones, and just smiled and bounced with those i didn't know. jeff knew just about all the songs, and everyone else just enjoyed the atmosphere.

{to see more concert videos, click the videos after they're done so that they go to the viddler link. it'll show all the ones i've uploaded. more to come!}

the music was obviously very different from regina, but i like them both all the same in their own ways. they're more tally hall-queen-esque. tons o' energy, and not as much super technical stuff. so it was a good balance of concerts for one night.

this picture was taken after the concert, and i'm intentionally trying to smile big and wide but you can't really tell from that angle. so it just looks weird. :]

...did you know that tally hall is coming THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4th?! ...just thought i'd throw that out there.