Beirut
Herbst Theatre - Oct 9, 2007
review by lexicon

Myriad instruments, a bunch of jovial friends on stage, and poppin' Eastern European-inspired tunes zipping their way merrily to your ears. What more could you want?

Hm...

Do you want to dance? Ok, there's room for that in the balcony wings and at the very front of the floor. Do you want to just sit and take it all in? Ok, you're fine in your plush velvet seat. Do you want to dress like you just got back from Burning Man, where you staged a play about a post-apocolyptic industrial society in which you played a street urchin/Flamenco dancer? Cool. Beirut has a place for you too.

While many bands must face the challenge of somehow integrating new material with fan favorites during live shows, Beirut is lucky to have a sound both unique and cohesive enough to slip whatever song they want into whichever timeslot they feel like. New, old, odd, obscure - it didn't matter. They attacked each song with equal zeal, and the audience followed along happily.

In fact, Beirut was apparently so happy to be there that they played almost their entire songbook, plus a few covers in languages other than English: A Jacques Brel song was the one I understood, and therefore remember (Zack Condon's French is pretty good!), but one of my favorite songs in the whole set was in an Eastern European language I couldn't identify.

There were so many people and instruments on stage, and so much conviviality amidst the performers, and between the performers and the audience, that you couldn't help but smile. This was the perfect midweek show. If you didn't come in in a good mood, you certainly left with spirits high.

posted Oct 31, 2007
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