Live review (kind of): Beirut @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

(photos via my phone)

Beirut announced this show on I believe Wednesday, and (not surprisingly) it sold out the same day. Thanks to a good friend of mine who told me it was happening (and contemplated flying out here from Michigan), I bought a ticket and went by myself last night. I live two blocks from the venue, so I got there right around when the doors opened, expecting there to be a bunch of people already waiting in line. Lucky for me, there was pretty much no one — probably because hipsters are too cool to be seen waiting outside before a show, but I could be wrong — so I found a spot directly in front of the stage and made some friends while waiting for the show to start.

Recently, Zach Condon (Beirut started as just him making all of the music) canceled a European tour and announced that the band wouldn’t be touring for a while after a few West Coast dates later this month, which made the show even more of a surprise. We quickly found out that the reason for the show was so we could be “guinea pigs” for the band to test out a couple of new songs (the guy next to me was recording them with his digital camera, so I’m sure they will be on YouTube pretty soon).

I don’t even know where to start with how incredible this show was; the way the 10 people onstage were always in sync, the way Condon enthusiastically conducted them, the way he danced when he wasn’t singing or playing, the crowd’s energy, the band’s energy, Condon’s voice (oh my god, that voice).

Almost everyone played multiple instruments: horn, string and electric bass, ukelele, drums, violin, tambourine, etc. etc., and at times there were as many as five horn players. And the entire show, Condon glowing. I felt like such a creeper/12-year-old girl for taking photos from so close (especially with my phone — for once I wish I had brought my real camera), but I took a few anyway. I also took the setlist closest to me (click on the photo for full size).

Yeah, this definitely made it into my top five shows ever (haven’t totally decided what the other four are, but this is up there).

Beirut’s Web site
Beirut’s MySpace (ha, just realized I had the wrong link for this)
Feature on Beirut from Winter 2007 issue of Venus Zine