Your backstage pass to the DFW music scene and beyond.
GRAND PRAIRIE -- Regina Spektor's performance Thursday night at Nokia Theatre was plenty peculiar, although probably not in the ways she intended.
The Soviet-born, New York City-based singer-songwriter, whose recent burst of fame is a decade in the making, constructs fussy pop songs from disparate source material: A vivid, erudite grasp of language; a proclivity for endearing vocal affectations and simple but elegant melodies.
It can be weird, but it works; Spektor isn't yet a household name and probably never will be, but not all pop artists need be brain-dead automatons.
Spektor's newest record, Far, is the impetus for the current tour and also her most tightly focused disc to date. It has dazzled critics (this one included) and packs all the punch of a well-edited anthology of short stories.
Yet too much of Spektor's brief (80 minute) set was delivered at arm's length, stifling intimacy and draining the drama from lush tunes like Man of a Thousand Faces or Eet, replacing it with a cerebral chilliness.
To be sure, Spektor's actual performance -- her singing and playing, whether it was upon her Steinway, an electronic keyboard or electric guitar -- was nearly flawless and technically deft. But the feeling was excised, as though merely being onstage was enough to get her fans engaged.
Which, sadly, it was; the room, perhaps half full but likely not, teemed with die-hard Spektor aficionados who could not contain their adoration for more than two or three minutes at a time. The vocalist seemed gratified by the raucous reception, although during a particularly pensive moment in Blue Lips, she colorfully chastised an audience member's poorly timed shout.
Jarring moments such as those only reinforced the evening's off-kilter vibe -- Spektor fairly raced through the set list, pausing only to say thanks after every few songs and introduce her spare backing band (violin, cello and drums). The highlights, however, were infrequent: A stirring rendition of Human of the Year and the startling, a cappella Silly Eye-Color Generalizations.
But try as she might, Spektor never quite connected. It was clear some in attendance were in total-OMG ecstasy; others were simply left perplexed by the peculiarities on display, treasuring the pockets of fleeting brilliance.