Beirut + Laura Barrett - The Commodore (Vancouver, BC; May 22, 2008)

“No, You’re lying, they did NOT cancel their tour!"(this being Nicole, almost yelling at her soccer teammate). After a brief scare that the show would not be happening (sadly, the European tour is cancelled), and a journey to Canada, we arrived at the Fabulous Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, British Columbia. Walking up the stairs into the venue, we didn’t quite know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised to encounter a large, open area consisting of three levels of table and balcony space with one large dance floor fronting the stage.

Opening the night was Canadian Laura Barrett, and though there seems to be a little bit of a disagreement among your humble reviewers about her performance, we’re going to try to present a uniform face. Barrett’s voice is reminiscent of other slow-singing, jazz-influenced female artists—say, Feist, or Regina Spektor—often self-accompanied by the sparse, sometimes horse-clop paced notes of her primary instrument, an African folk thumb piano called a kalimba. She also played a little bit of kazoo and had some banjo accompaniment. While sporting vivid lyrics (one instrumental was entitled “Stop Giving Your Children Standardized Tests") and real vocal strength, Barrett often wavered out of key, going alternately flat and sharp on sustained notes. Despite a supportive crowd, she seemed nervous, laughing several times about lacking a sizable band. She mentioned that the “tree” sculpture behind her was commissioned from a local artist to help her fill the stage. Though we found her infomercial-inspired song about an robot pony to be original in content, we can see how other listeners might tire a bit of the constant sound to her instrumental backing. Also, we didn’t know “glitch-pop” existed as a genre, but she apparently wrote a song in this styling.

While many may associate Beirut with a war-torn country—or at least the kebob we shared yesterday—the word to me brings to mind a fabulous, whirling-dervish-of-a-eight-member band. Bass, guitar, ukulele, trumpet, euphonium, violin, accordion, glockenspiel, key, clarinet, French horn, drum, Bari sax, mandolin, tambourine: all present. Kicking straight into the set with a strut-worthy accordion intro to “Nantes,” the band launched into their tight, bright set and never looked back. No disagreement about this set, Beirut is worth writing home, or even Europe, about.

The evening featured a nice blend of older material off their more Eastern European influenced Gulag Orkestar and the most recent homage to twentieth century French music, The Flying Club Cup. Their tunes were obviously recognizable to the many fanatical fans in the audience (such is their following), but the live presence did manage to throw in some surprises, including some fancy trumpet flourishes on “Mr. Wroclai” and several tunes not present on any album we’ve heard. “My Wife” in particular conjured a Roma-type feel with its oomm-paa-paa heavy brass sound.

Beirut’s music has the ability to transport the listener to another place, and “Forks and Knives” did exactly that, spreading a desire in these participants to waltz down the boulevards of Paris, accompanied by tambourine and a dainty glockenspiel. “Scenic World,” another crowd favorite, started off in an almost orchestra type warm up with the violin and French horn setting up the slowed down vocals of Zach Condon, the mastermind behind Beirut. Condon had relatively little to say to the crowd, but did invite us to sing along if we knew the words to “Sunday Smile,” and mentioned the crowded house was “A hell of a way to kick off the tour.” By the time they got to “Elephant Gun,” we were demanding of each other, “How can people not be dancing, or in the very least, swaying more enthusiastically!?”

Perhaps it was the fact that everyone had pushed up so closely to the front, but even the more rock-tempo “After the Curtain” sadly failed to move the front folk from their tight, almost static upright positions. I guess no one wanted to miss any of the close-up, on-stage action, or see who would play what next.

After the encore break, the band included another non-catalog, almost balladic number that sounded something like a French “Happy Trails,” interrupted only slightly by ear-piercing microphone feedback. Condon’s voice, along with the horn section, seemed to soar.

One of the best things about Beirut is that every song is dramatic and exciting enough to be a closing number, although sadly they didn’t actually play the appropriately named “Closing Song,” one of my only laments of the night. Fortunately, they came out for a second encore and treated us to “a dirty tune” due to the fact it was to be “powered by booze.” While I briefly feared the band might crash or fall, due not so much to their close proximity (they were sharing microphones by this point), but the mass of early competing sounds. The band took their energy to a new level, clearly singing and playing their hearts out and breaking for a well-placed drum solo, which drew some of the loudest cheers of the night.

After having been completely enthralled with the live performance energy reminiscent of a Jewish wedding party put forth by Beirut (and as we’re still recovering from the recent DeVotchKa show), we just don’t know where to go from here. There’s always the circus.

SET LIST
01. Nantes
02. Brandenburg
03. The Penalty
04. Mt Wroclai (Idle Days)
05. My Wife
06. La Fete (forks and knives)
07. Scenic world
08. Benito Juarez
09. Sunday Smile
10. Elephant Gun
11. After the Curtain

FIRST ENCORE
12. Cherbourg
13. Postcards from Italy
14. ? (not on setlist and not in english?)

SECOND ENCORE
15. Gulag Orkestar
16. O Leaozinho
17. Canals of Our City

(Note: the printed set list was not quite accurate, as they made some in-the-moment changes. I regret that I don’t know the name of the tune after Postcards from Italy but believe the rest to be accurate. Do you know what it was? Shoot Ari an email and we’ll slot it in, with our thanks!)

review to your liking? You'll sweat:

DeVotchKa + Basia Bulat - Showbox SoDo (Seattle, WA; May 3, 2008)

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José González + Mia Doi Todd - Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA; Mar. 13, 2008)

Rufus Wainwright + Lucy Wainwright Roche - 9:30 Club (Washington, DC; Dec. 21, 2007)

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