Coachella Art

Ting Tings vs. Los Campesinos

What to do, what to do?? Both bands are playing tonight in Vancouver and I'm torn... I have them both in my iPod, they're both playing at Coachella, they're both B+ bands in my book, and they will both attract similar scenester crowds. 

Given that I have no preference for either show, I suppose I'll have to resort to the good ol' principles of rational choice theory and go to whichever show is a little cheaper. My Econ profs would be proud. 

What would Lennon do?

Radiohead full concert (o una probadita)

Reminiscing Radiohead

I'm sitting in my Vancouver apartment, suffering from a terrible cold. I can feel the antihistamine drowsiness kicking in as the first notes of There There burst out of my speakers. The runny nose and persistent cough are a modest price to pay for one of the most fantastic weekends of my life: Radiohead TWICE in Mexico City!

Flashback to September 10, 2001. It's 9pm and I'm at the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence, waiting for a train that will travel all night to Berlin. I get off the train at Bahnhof Zoo at 5pm on September 11 and I see hundreds of people staring at the television screens. The Twin Towers are burning, people around me are shouting in German, and the only word I can register is "terroristen". A couple of hours later, I'm standing at the Parkbühne Wuhlheide with my friends Jan, Raúl, and Tatiana, listening to a very angry Thom Yorke singing "Come on, come on, Holy Roman Empire". The metaphor is too fitting. "Come on if you think, come on if you think, you can take us all." (This historic concert is now the I Might Be Wrong: live recordings.)

Fast forward to Florence, July 9, 2003. I'm at the Piazzale Michelangelo with Jessica, Aranzazú, and Andrés, desperately trying to find a scalper. Outside the concert fence there is a mass of ticketless fans trying to catch a glimpse of the stage by standing on top of cars and trashcans. We roam around the entrance like blood thirsty predators, until the music begins, forcing us to sit outside in resignation. The sense of community is unavoidable in this large group of outcasts, as we all tap our feet and quietly murmur the lyrics of the show we can't see. Thom is almost cruel when he says "There's a gap in between...where I end and you begin."

Then it's August 19, 2008. I cross the street from my apartment in Vancouver and arrive at Thunderbird Stadium with Pablo and Ignacio. A perfect new album and a great venue promise a perfect show. But the sudden combination of rain and an imperfect crowd make it all uncomfortable. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? 

Not for long. 

It's March 14, 2009. I arrive unannounced at my father's 60th birthday party in Mexico City and my sister informs me that, by mere chance, Radiohead is playing this weekend. My heart leaps out of its chamber as I work through my phone list to get tickets (gracias Diana, gracias Pablo). Twenty-four hours later, I'm standing at the Foro Sol, listening to the opening beats of 15 Step and shouting at the top of my lungs. The concert is insuperable, the setlist tailored to perfection. A day later I'm at the exact same spot, next to the central console, listening in disbelief to How to Disappear Completely. I suddenly realize that after two years of living in Vancouver, I forgot what it's like to experience a concert in a Mexico City crowd. The amount of passion, the noise, the warmth are unexplainable... DF, "You're all I need, you're all I need". 

As I grab yet another tissue and blow my nose, I stop and remember the weekend. I close my eyes to relive the euphoria, the shouts and chants coming out of 55,000 voices. My cough interrupts the memory of the bright led tubes just as the last notes of Videotape echo from my ongoing playlist. It suddenly hits me that I will never listen to this (or any) song in the same way. 

(p.s. This is what a real crowd feels like. Or this. And again. At 1:38)

David Byrne in Van!!

I'm simply speechless. This seldom happens to me... but I can't even begin to describe the magic of David Byrne's show last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. And given that David Byrne needs no explanation or introduction from your blogger, I'm not even going to try.

Suffice it to say that David Byrne managed to get a Vancouver audience out of their seats!! The first six or seven songs were mainly from the new album and from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which kept the audience sitting down at their most polite. But then, after this delicious appetizer, he suddenly reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out "Once in a Lifetime" followed by "What a Day That Was"...what an entrée! Then, when our mouths were asking for dessert, David Byrne gave us a tasty "Take Me to The River" followed by the finest rendition ever of "Burning Down the House". He finished with the beautiful new "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today", followed by a good seven minutes of handbreaking applause.

As a sidenote, David Byrne's posse included not only incredibly talented musicians (Redray Frazier, Jenni Muldaur, Kaissa, Forro in the Dark), but also a trio of dancers that kept the visuals interesting.

For another opinion (and a photo and a video) see BunkleLife.

Or read the more thorough review by Ken Eisner.

Coachella 09 lineup!

The lineup for Coachella 2009 has finally been published, which means it's time to start saving money and making plans for the magical mystery roadtrip to the depths of the Palm Desert in California! As happens every year, the lineup gave me a confused mix of excitement and disappointment.

Excitement because I'll get to see Beirut, Antony and the Johnsons, and Band of Horses again! Excitement because I'm dying to see Sebastien Tellier, Los Campesinos! and TV on the Radio! Excitement because it will probably be raining in Vancouver while we're under the desert sun listening to these amazing bands.

Disappointment because The Killers are headlining (I seriously hope they're not the new Jack Johnsons of this year...with his boring surfer guitar headlining every festival in 2008)! Disappointment because Andrew Bird and Yeasayer are not on the list. And disappointment because they could have definitely found someone younger, more innovative and infinitely more fresh than Paul McCartney to headline Friday night.

---------------------------------------update--------------------------------------------

As always, Rodrigo was quick to point out that McCartney has a new project called The Fireman...which pretty much leaves me without an argument for a more innovative, fresher sound. Much obliged.

Get off the couch!

It takes a unique event to inspire most people to sacrifice their perfect evening on a soft couch, watching a TV comedy on prime time while indulging on some comfort food. Every city, however cosmopolitan, experiences some idle weeks in the year, the kind where nothing poses a serious threat to the couch plan. However, this is NOT the time to stay at home in Vancouver!

Or paraphrasing some Zoolander male model, "Vancouver, it's so hot right now".

Here are my top 5 reasons to leave the couch:

1. (Jan. 14-Feb. 1st) Vancouverites can experience the best culinary marvels of the city by going to Dine-Out Vanouver 2009. For those of you haven't heard, the best restaurants in the city are offering three course meal menus for cheap, fixed prices. Restaurants are divided into three price categories, $18, $28, and $38, and their Dine-Out menus are all available online.

(My favorites: if you feel like going to a cozy bistro and eating a stout and cheddar foundue, a ratatouille provençale, and a chocolate banana bread pudding for only $18, visit Burgoo! If Asian flavors excite your pallate, try the salt spring island mussels, a Vietnamense nuoc cham sablefish or pulled duck confit crepes, and a coconut sticky rice for just $28. Or if you have a fancy date and would like to impress him/her with an albacore tuna tataki, a Kurobota pork roasted for 24 hours, and a key lime cheesecake by Frank Pabst (best chef 2008), visit Blue Water Café for a modest $38. Dine-Out Vancouver is certainly the best excuse to leave your comfort food in the fridge and gain some good winter pounds!)

2. Concerts, concerts, concerts at the Biltmore Cabaret! Metronomy plays on Saturday 24, Matt & Kim play on Wednesday 28, and The Album Leaf play on Saturday 31.

3. (Jan. 16-Feb. 16) For all you film buffs, Pacific Cinematheque is playing a retrospective of films by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. The retrospective is called In the Realm of Oshima, and it was called "the international film retrospective of the year" by Liam Lacey of the Globe and Mail. I'm dying to watch Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie.

4. (Jan. 20-Feb. 8) Thespians be aware! The Push Festival is here! It's probably the most important performing arts festival of the year, and a perfect excuse to miss an episode of Heroes. Some highlights are the amazing show Billy Twinkle by the world's most famous puppet theatre artist Ronnie Burkett, and the Japanese show Five Days in March by the renowned Chelftisch Theatre Company.

5. Gallery openings! Yesterday, Catriona Jeffries Gallery opened a show by Gareth Moore (Jan. 15-Feb. 14). Then, the Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society opened the screeing of The Soft Revolution at the Interurban Gallery (located at 1 East Hastings). Both are a must see! I went to the The Soft Revolution yesterday and it's an impressive project that breaches the boundaries of linear narrative in cinema by allowing the viewers to interact with the film. There are three screens and two control panels where users can press buttons to select which character comes into play, giving the viewer a feeling of control over the story.

6. (Feb. 1-Mar. 21) If you don't mind going all the way to Surrey, the Surrey Art Gallery is opening Uneasy Beauty, an amazing Edward Burtynsky show! You should NOT miss this exhibit! Apart from the awe inspiring beauty of his work, Burtynsky has become such an important voice for sustainability that in 2005 he earned the TED Prize (click to see his profile and his acceptance speech). This led to the release of his documentary Manufactured Landscapes, which was shown at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. He is also involved in Worldchanging, the foremost online sustainability community. Did I convince you?

Enjoy.

Arrrggghhhh!

It's been three days now and I'm still boiling inside. Every time I think about it, my skin dries up and my little stomach releases...well, stomach juice of course. "What on God's name are you blathering about?" Well, I'll tell you what I'm blathering about.

I missed the Yeasayer concert last Thursday...

...because I had to write a term paper. Arrrghhh. At the moment I thought it was the right choice, the responsible one (considering my final countdown). But then, at midnight that same night, I got a 5 day extension. Arrrghhh!

Anyway, the symptoms of my post-ImissedYeasayer stress disorder have only increased because now I can't stop listening to their music. AND, almost every music review that I've read compares them to David Byrne! So double arrrgggggh. (I'm tempted to call it "divine punishment")

So please join me in my frustration by pressing play and realizing what you also missed:





And yes, we should all listen to Rodrigo more often.

My Brazil

Although the possessive adjective in the title might suggest that I acquired a portion of that country or that I somehow received the power to appropriate national abstractions, this post is simply a "cultural gazette" on a series of Brazilian experiences that I had.

First, I went to the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (which, I'm proud to say, was organized by a young Mexican) and watched the film Proibido Proibir, which was truly excellent and inspiring. I won't spoil your experience of watching it by discussing the plot here, but the views of Brazilian society provided by the film functioned as a great complement to the notion I had of the favelas and social divisions in that country. Also, the story managed to jerk a tear or two from my face...which is always very much appreciated by your blogger.

Second, I went to the CSS (Cansei De Ser Sexy) concert at the Commodore Ballroom and enjoyed it even more than the first time I saw them at Coachella 2007. The singer was incredibly energetic and the music had me dancing all night long. This automatically led me to rediscover their amazing CSS Suxx album.

Third, I was recently introduced the work of the great Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado. It only took an hour of looking at his book "Workers" to fully reinvigorate my belief that photojournalism not only has the power to effectively denounce injustices, but that photojournalists have a responsibility to find and expose those places where abuse and injustice are hidden from everyday discussion.

Lastly, I still haven't forgotten the Vik Muniz expo I saw this summer. In a way, it changed the way I think of perception and has even affected the way I take photographs.

(And yes...there is a Brazilian girl.)

Battles en Van

Vengo regresando del concierto de Battles y lo primero que noto es que, aunque me puse mis Hearos, me siguen retumbando los oidos. ¡Qué vatos tan intensos! No puedo decir que me encantó la música - en muchos momentos me sentí más perdido que la primera vez que escuché jazz - pero sin duda me impresionaron. Verlos samplear en vivo, rascando sus guitarras y jalando las teclas de sus sintetizadores, fue cansado hasta para los ojos.

El show duró poco más de una hora, pero al final todos quedamos empapados. Hasta el color de la camisa del guitarrista cambió de color de tanto sudor. Desde la primera rola, quedó claro que Battles se nos iba a meter por los huesos... su sonido era algo inescapable. Tal vez porque no tocan ritmos convencionales, ni estribillos, ni coros, ni algo predecible, su show exige la máxima atención del público. Para mi, la atención se convirtió rápidamente en asombro cuando me di cuenta de la cantidad de cosas que suceden en el escenario a la vez!

El guitarrista principal se la pasa sampleando riffs mínimos, los mezcla con gritos en un micrófono, y luego les graba encima un piano...y todo mientras lleva el ritmo con la mano derecha y dirige al baterista. El baterista vive con la mirada clavada entre sus piernas, en un trance que parece irrompible hasta que se levanta de vez en cuando para pegarle a un platillo que le queda muy elevado. El bajista le agrega finísimas notas de bajo a la mezcla, las samplea, las distorsiona y se la pasa jugando con la velocidad de la grabación. Y la mano del otro guitarrista se la pasa haciendo puente entre dos sintetizadores y las cuerdas de la guitarra. En fin, en vivo son impresionantes.

Radiohead. In Rain.

Thunderbird Stadium. Vancouver. Rain. Moments ago.
































































(special thanks to Trucha and his waterproof camera)

Prelude to Radiohead

It's 12.07 am this Tuesday and I just saw groups of Radiohead fans already walking towards Thunderbird Stadium! In the darkness, I noticed tents, backpacks, and groups of fans getting ready for a night of waiting. I just got home from the airport and the only reason I'm here (in the blog) is to share that the only reason I'm here (in Vancouver) and ended my Mexico trip short was to see Radiohead in a few hours. But the guys camping out there, in the rain, with plastic sheets to cover them during more than 20 hours before Thom sings his first notes, make my little effort of booking an earlier flight seem insignificant. Hoorah Radiohead fans!

Boris, or the dangers of blind trust

I don't remember who recommended the Boris concert to me, but somebody made a very successful prank when they convinced me to buy tickets for yesterday's concert in Vancouver. (I have to call Rodrigo to inquire if it was him...and maybe end our friendship) I have a bad habit of buying tickets first, asking questions later that has led me to suffer through horrendous performances by new bands. Yet, nothing compares to my Boris experience.

I sacrificed the last night of the Celebration of Light to go to the concert... yes, the night where China showed the Canadian and American teams why they are the fireworks rulers of the earth. But don't get me started on that....

After walking in front of Richard's on Richards and hearing the first fireworks explode (any view of them blocked by the Yaletown buildings), I shoved my way through a crowd of leather clad Boris fans and suddenly realized I was surrounded by a mass of headbanging hardcores that made me and my skinny jeans look ridiculous. En español, me sentí fresísima.

Minutes later, the Boris guys jumped on stage, turned on their amps, and began their metal guitar noises and their shouts. The crowd went crazy and I felt just like a character in Guitar Hero, with the rhythm guitarist trying hard to follow the drummer's extra fast pounding of his Tama with equally fast riffs. It felt like an aggressive talent show band, just delivering song after song of ear busting noise. I left after the 5th identical one... the horror, the horror.

------------- Update! (August 4)

Revising my blog, I just realized that I got this Boris thing all wrong!! I did NOT see Boris that day at Richard's on Richards... it was the opening band Torche!!! I arrived late that day, (the tickets said doors opened at 8 pm) and I assumed that the band that started to play at 10.30 pm was the main event! Faaaaaak.

Walter would call me a "fucking amateur" and I would have to just bow my head in agreement.

Chikita Violenta en Seattle

Acabo de regresar del concierto de Chikita Violenta en Seattle. No he tenido mucho tiempo de bloggear porque el viernes me lanzo al DF y tengo muchos "quehaceres" pendientes antes de regresar al motherland. Pero les comparto que me dió un gusto tremendo estar en la primera gira internacional de la Chikita y verlos rockear en la ciudad de Cobain y Vedder. Como dijo Andrés desde el escenario, "We were eating a pizza a block away from here and I suddenly noticed they were playing Alice in Chains. And then I realized it has always been a dream for us to stand on a stage in the city that gave birth to grunge."

Fueron la banda principal de la noche, y la única que logró que todo el público del High Dive se acercara al escenario a rockear. Jero Jiménez, baterista de Simona, fue el músico invitado de la gira y le inyectó dos kilos de extra punch a todas las rolas. Mad skills, that boy, maaaad skills. Trataron de cerrar la noche con "The Last Film", pero la rola alborotó demasiado a la gente y tuvieron que regresar a tocar un encore no planeado: repitieron la rola abridora, "War" porque, como explicó Armando, "we didn't have time to practice every single song with the new drummer!






Felicidades a la Chikita Violenta por su primera gira...and keep on rockin'!

Shearwater @ Zulu

I was riding my new old Bianchi along 4th Av. earlier this afternoon when I suddenly heard an amazing sound coming from Zulu Records. The whole street was paused in awe and turned towards the store, so I parked my bike and crossed the street to find Shearwater performing live! The crowd was no larger than 30 people, and their vintage amplifiers were stacked between the tight rows of used vinyls and the old arcades.

Although I usually need a week or two to fully accept a band into my system, Shearwater managed to really grab my attention after only a few minutes. Their songs brought me the melancholy of Andrew Bird and Beirut mixed with the suspense in Radiohead's Amnesiac....and the voice reminded me of the anguish in Antony and the Johnsons. The voice had an unforgettably pure old school flavor.

Seeing them play in that tiny space to such an intimate crowd was a true privilege. In big festival stages you lose the connection between the band and the audience, and artists can easily hide their flaws by simply increasing the volume or adding a distracting light show. But today at Zulu, you could almost touch the intimacy created by the five musicians who were showing their talent and didn't need a place to hide. It felt raw, real, and pure. I didn't hesitate to buy their CD and find a marker to get it autographed.

All I can add is that I got home two hours ago and I've already listened to their album twice.

(this happened at Fingerprints record store in Long Beach)

Folk Music Festival, part 3

On Sunday, I decided to put the lens cap on my camera for a while and become a true festival-goer. The first thing I discovered were the dozens of hoola-hoops scattered around the lawns at Jericho Park, waiting for a moving waist to give them a shake. I stepped over a purple one and suddenly became one of the hundreds, maybe thousands of curious festival-goers that enjoyed an instant flashback to childhood on that sunny Sunday at Jericho.

After a quick escape to eat an organic lentil wrap (veeery Vancouver), I went back to the main stage area and realized I was the only person without a blanket to mark his territory on the grass. The blanket situation requires a full post by itself, but I will just say that it looked like an unspoken "who brought the most exotic blanket to the park" contest. After a full ten minutes of trying to penetrate the blanket crowd and stepping on them all (accompanied by the classic "sorry, excuse me, sorry again, oh oops, coming through, hi sorry..."), I finally found a miniature blanketless square of grass and sat to enjoy the music of Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka.

As the sun was setting, I walked back to the media tent to meet the festival volunteer that would escort me to the back of the main stage in order to shoot the closing act of the festival. I knew it would be an important band, but I read the name of the performer and it didn't ring any bells. That explains why, when I entered the backstage area and saw Michael Franti calmly dribbling his soccer ball, I just said "excuse me" and walked past him.

Ten minutes later, I found myself mesmerized by Michael Franti. Watching him appear on stage was shocking and his music had a je ne sais quoi that left me in awe. I was paralyzed. I spent a whole song simply looking at him jump around the stage and absorbing his energy. Seeing a performer on stage makes us forget that they also walk as humans...on normal ground. To our eyes, they belong on stage, with lights and microphones and a fake background. But this man that had been so calmly playing with his soccer ball on the grass behind the stage, suddenly appeared before my eyes as the cause of all the shouts and the crowd's sudden hysteria. Anyway... here are the pics I shot after I got out of the trance:

Folk Music Festival, part 2

On Saturday I arrived just in time to see the master himself, Martin Sexton. There are only three letters that can describe this man: WOW. He injected the Jericho lawns with a spiritual energy that sent an extended cue for collective goosebumps. His voice reminded me of Ray Charles and Paul Simon, mixed with Dave Matthews on his better days (oh, sacrilegious comparison, I know). After him, I managed to get an escort to go on stage again and shoot the amazing set of Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Béla Fleck. Yes, I repeat, Béla Fleck, the banjo sensei that won 4 Grammys and was the only performer whose music I had on my iTunes! The main stage was suddenly turned into a display of virtuosismo by the banjos and the two violins that accompanied them. She delighted the audience with a song in Chinese and a story about her love for the time she spent recording there. Fleck was wearing a wicked pair of sunglasses that had some sort of foldable metallic window with a question mark and made it almost impossible to get a photo without a crazy glare.

The last act of last night was Spirit of the West, a band that had a truly personal connection with the audience. After 25 years of performing together, this Vancouver band is a favorite of the local crowd...some of their songs tell elaborate tales of North Van and sound like a Broadway musical. I wouldn't say I loved their songs, but it was impossible to keep still while listening to them. In what sounded like the celtic folk equivalent to a motivational poster, I was soon shaking my body to a fiddle and a mandolin! I hereby share my photos of this second night:

(click to enlarge)

Folk Music Festival

This weekend is very special for me. I'm covering the Vancouver Folk Music Festival for The Ubyssey newspaper! My assignment is to take photographs and write an article giving my opinion about the festival. I must say that I'm far from being a folk music connoisseur, but it's been a fantastic experience so far. On Friday I saw Aimee Mann, for whom I had great expectations (she won a Grammy for the Magnolia soundtrack), but she was dull on stage and sounded very monotonous. After her concert, I decided to try and see if I could get a press pass to take some shots of the closing act from the stage (it never hurts to ask). The media relations people were delighted to escort me to the stage corridor and soon after I was frantically taking pictures of Ozomatli!

Their show was so charged with energy that it made everybody in the audience stand from their portable chairs (yes, Vancouverites come very prepared to beachside festivals...with enormous organic cotton blankets from some country they can't pronounce and the most professional foldable chairs that make a Tesla engine look simple). It was very pleasing to see the large crowd singing, or at least trying to sing in Spanish and loving every second of Ozomatli's eclectic mix of Mexican folk and hip hop. As always, Ozomatli ended their concert by jumping off stage with large drums and doing a sort of carnival parade around the field. Here are some photos I took on this first day:

(click to enlarge)

Brad Mehldau, Bravissimo!

Oh, the indescribable joy of jazz festivals! I've just come home from a tremendous performance by the Brad Mehldau Trio at the Vancouver Centre for Performing Arts. The venue was perfect, and the crowd eager to clap and make noise after every single solo. Mehldau was very cool at his piano, keeping the rhythm by sliding his shoulders from side to side...his hands dancing over the ivory keys as he glanced occasionally at bassist Larry Grenadier.

There is a certain air of reverence at jazz festivals that has always surprised me...it feels as if the audience acknowledges that jazz musicians are a different breed, magicians that have a superior level of understanding about music. The stage becomes an altar of improvisation, in which creation occurs every instant and the sound is indescribably authentic. If you've lived through a 10+ minute piano solo, where the suspense grows with every note as you realize the music can take any direction, you might understand what I'm trying to say.

Back to Brad. They started off with a Thelonious Monk masterpiece. Then I believe they played a Coltrane song (please correct me if I'm wrong), and an Ella Fitzgerald classic. The common denominator in these songs was Brad Mehldau's incredible ability to improvise...to simply sit in his piano, feel the sounds coming from Jeff Ballard's drums, and reinvent songs that have been going around for decades.

After the fourth piece, Mehldau suddenly grabbed the microphone to tell us its story. He told us he dreamed the song while watching the movie "Easy Rider" on an airplane. He said his song was an imaginary eulogy that would be delivered by Wyatt (Peter Fonda) to George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) after his death. Priceless!

Then, unexpectedly, the trio began playing Sufjan Stevens' "Holland"! They started slowly, softly, in that very melancholy Sufjan mood...and then picked up the pace, stopped for a couple of solos, and suddenly bang! Holland appropriated by Mehldau!

And like a true maestro, Brad Mehldau saved the best for last. Yes...as you might have expected, he treated the audience with a Radiohead cover. (I must confess that the first Mehldau song I ever heard was his version of "Paranoid Android", about 5 years ago. I bought his "Largo" album and became an instant follower. One of the reasons why I wanted see him tonight was to hear one of his Radiohead covers). Fortunately, on this beautiful night in Vancouver, Brad Mehldau surprised the audience by finishing his performance with a magnificent version of "Exit Music (for a film)"!

I left my seat (orchestra, T-30) humming the last song and thinking that, although I adore the unpredictability of jazz (and the beauty of trying not to get lost in every song, thanks to my ADD), there is something inherently attractive about listening to an alternative version of a song you know by heart.

Beirut in Van

I've been itching to write about Beirut's concert at the Commodore Ballroom since I boarded an airplane last Thursday with Zach Condon's voice still present in my brain. The concert was flawless, and although Beirut lacks a "show", it was an impressive display of musical virtuosity. The band didn't present special lights nor some interesting eastern European visuals (somehow I was expecting something of the sort). Nevertheless, Condon's voice has a natural flavour that transports you to the imaginary Soviet places of your liking without the need of explicit visual effects. He looked calm and comfortable on stage, and instead of feeling like the singer was putting on an act for the audience (the extreme opposite would be a band like Kiss), it felt as if the public had been invited into Condon's living room while he sang for himself. The concert never lost its air of intimacy. For a very fresh look of Beirut, check their Concert à emporter at La Blogotheque.

My head usually gets tired after listening to a full Beirut album. Their melodies are so rich that I have a hard time concentrating on their music when it plays for an extended time. In other words, I can't play Beirut as background music... the complexity of their sound demands my full attention and I have too much ADD to go trough a full album without a break. However, after Thursday's concert I've been listening to their albums obsessively. I even slept on the flight to Mexico with The Flying Cup Club playing on my iPod. It's almost as if the experience of seeing all the instruments come to life somehow made me absorb their music better, such that I no longer struggle when listening to their recordings. If any of my readers has a more scientific explanation for this, please share it.

I forgot my camera, so I didn't take any photos or videos... fortunately, someone called jchutter recorded a big part of their performance. Also, I sat behind the console most of the concert and the sound engineer had the official set list attached on it. As an anecdote, Beirut had planned 2 encore songs on their set list...but during the concert, they played about 6 encore songs. It was fascinating to see a seemingly amateur Condon discuss repeatedly with his bandmates which song to play next. Beirut was having such a good time with the audience at the Commodore Ballroom that they simply needed to continue playing and improvising beyond their planned set.

The official set list on the console at the Commodore was:

Nantes
Brandenburg
The Penalty
Mt. Wroclai
My Wife
Forks and Knives (La Fête)
Scenic World
Benito Juárez
A Sunday Smile
Elephant Gun
Cherbourg
After the Curtain
Gulag Orkestar
-------------(encore)
O Leaozinho
Postcards from Italy

And here is a playlist I compiled following the setlist: