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: