Photo Gallery: Regina Spektor at Chicago Theatre • Chicago

Brassneck | October 10, 2022

Regina Spektor
Chicago Theatre
Chicago, IL
October 9, 2022

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

Regina Spektor commenced her tour in Chicago Sunday with two releases to promote. Her 2022 album Home, before and after, certainly will be the main focus of her 11-show U.S. tour, but her 2001 debut, 11:11, has recently been reissued as a massive collection that includes mountains of bonus material. It was within these two bookends that Spektor delivered a career-spanning set list that found her digging so deep into her catalog that audience members had to periodically help her to remember lyrics.

The Soviet refugee turned naturalized citizen handled all of it with nonplussed humility and an impossibly toothy smile that feels as though it could function as an olive branch doubling as a physical feature. Performing solo (playing piano, guitar, and sometimes singing acapella), her voice was perfectly suited to fill the acoustically sumptuous environment that is the Chicago Theatre. Over the course of nearly two hours, those in attendance were treated to lovely songs delivered by an artist with a lovely voice in a lovely-sounding room. What’s not to love?