Imagine Lemony Snicket's Violet Baudelaire has all grown up, gotten a little sweeter and turned her inventive streak to an impressive musical output and you're someway to visualising Regina Spektor.

Best known for Us, the little ditty featured on Sky TV's advert with the gravity-defying skateboarder, Spektor's stripped-down, big-voiced approach wouldn't be out of place as the musical accompaniment at a magic lantern show hosted by Edward Gorey.

While a tweeness occasionally threatens to envelop her sound, Gothic inclinations and themes of brooding women, broken relationships and long-dead authors, mean Spektor is nothing if not interesting.

Luckily, she manages to play down any Tori Amos clone calls (you know, one woman and a piano the comparisons are inevitable) with a nice line in diet vitriol and caffeine-free melancholy.

Mostly concentrating on tracks from compilation album Mary Ann Meets The Gravediggers, with some less biting stuff from latest release Begin To Hope chucked in, the black-clad singer remained piano-bound and sweetly-smiling for the gig's greater part.

Standing up once for a couple of reggae/country-tinged guitar-driven tunes and kicking things off with a stunning blues-style acapella number, Spektor unfortunately hampered herself slightly when sat at the piano.

Undeniably a virtuoso pianist with an incredible voice, her much-mooted foot-stomping, cane-thwacking performance style was in little evidence as she mainly concentrated on big voice and heavy key bashing.

That was all well and good but things soon got a little samey and when we were treated to a stick-smacking, heel-crashing encore it was impossible not to feel a little bit short-changed on the overall performance.

However, a very warm reception in the Concorde 2's sweltering environs showed people are loving the kooky New Yorker. A more intimate venue such as Komedia would perhaps suit this quirky performer better next time.