The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Angela Evancie Regina Spektor won over students in Pepin Gymnasium with her impressive vocal range. She played songs spanning her entire career, delivering a memorable performance. [Click to enlarge]

Audio produced by Radio Arts Middlebury.

"But I adore him/And I implore him/ Saying I love none other/ But this ain't no style," rung out Regina Spektor's sultry voice, her voluptuous vocals captivating the sold-out audience at Pepin Gymnasium on Saturday evening. The opening lyrics to "Ain't No Cover," an unreleased and personal favorite of Spektor's to perform a Capella live, set the stage for a paradoxical performance. Whether it was addressing the audience in an wispy whisper before launching into the resounding, guttural groans of "Après Moi" -sung partly in harsh Russian - or the image of her small frame wielding a bright blue guitar, Spektor delivered a concert that was both refreshingly feminine and surprisingly masculine, endearingly innocent and mischievously sexual.

By commanding the stage, armed only with a microphone during the first song, Spektor immediately developed a presence noticeably lacking in the opening act, Only Son, while still exposing a vulnerability that would have been hard to achieve if she had hid behind her piano for the entire evening. This show of openness, however, was counteracted by the bizarre seating arrangements - the mandate to remain seated quickly created a wall between the performer and spectators.

Still, in attempt to be equally personable and surprising, Spektor even abandoned the bench for a few electric guitar numbers, leading to some of the most striking renditions of the evening. In "Bobbing for Apples," the veteran songstress posed quite the picture - her tasteful red dress was accentuated by the neon of her guitar and her disarmingly breathy vocals casually informed the audience that "someone next door's f---king to one of my songs." Tapping on the microphone and converting a chair into a drum, she exhibited a comfortable control over her environment throughout the entire performance - even when confronted with the unexpected. To show that she had a sense of humor as quirky as her lyrics, she responded readily to audience shout-outs, even politely asking a masculine disembodied voice if he had commented on her dress or breasts.Through a combination of elegance and pragmatism, coupled with a mind-blowing range and acrobatic vocals exhibited on such numbers as "Baby Jesus," Spektor kept the crowd on their toes - metaphorically speaking.

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