Russian-born, NYC-livin' anti-folk piano girl Regina Spektor took the stage solo last night at the Moore, starting things off a capella, making her own beats by tapping the mic. Over the next hour plus, she performed most of the songs on her last two albums (Begin to Hope and Soviet Kitsch), along with some from 11:11.

Early on, it was just Regina and her Yamaha---and her warm accented voice, strong yet breathy, punctuated by hiccups and whispers---but at the eighth song, she finally broke out her backing band, who we named "The Three Dudes."

There was lots of quiet, reverent singing throughout the audience for her newer, more popular songs, like "Fidelity" [mp3], "That Time," "On the Radio," and "Better." But the most singing of all was for oldie "Ghost of Corporate Future," probably because Regina flat-out asked for the audience's accompaniment.

That was one of the six (!) songs in the encore, which also included MTV2 quasi-hit "Us" and the dramatic gravitas of ballad "Samson." Regina ended the night out from behind the piano, and the crowd was on its feet, happy to be singing along with her on "Hotel Song." Happy like "OMG! Regina! WE LOOOOOVE YOOOOUUUUUU!"

Photo care of Flickr / user kingpinphoto.