Regina, live

Regina Spektor played Tuesday night at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, and the butterfly lady and I flitted into town for the show. The ballroom is just that, a funky standing-room-only venue on an upper floor of a building near Powell's Books. We got lucky: Only about 120 people were in line in front of us (I think about 1,200 or so were at the show), so we got really good "seats" about 15 feet from the stage.

The show was great - she played alone, with a piano, a guitar and some improvised percussion. I think the best single-word summary for her is adorable. She's got wicked ridiculous skills as a musician, but she also seems to possess a Mitch Hedberg-style bashfulness, which is pretty endearing, and made up for the unreasonable break between her opening act and her set. We were in line at 7:30 and she came on about 10:05 or 10:10... that's a fair amount of time standing around. But hey, what can you do. She was well worth the wait, one of the better shows I've been to. And fortunately for me, I'm taller than a lot of Regina Spektor's fans.

This was one of the few shows I've gone to without a notebook or a deadline. I think I like just going to the show better than covering it.

Here's a little taste of the show: