Beirut
Portage Theater in Chicago
10/4/07
I’m going to keep this relatively short but refer anyone reading to my friend Nicole’s longer and detailed review posted on Radio Free Chicago of this show. I’ve reviewed Beirut before and, though I find their songs pleasant enough, I can’t help feeling the shock of them being able to sell out such a huge venue when I was just seeing them at the Empty Bottle not even a year ago. Though Beirut is largely the world of the very young Zach Condon, they are a rather large ensemble using a multitude of instruments to create a full and well rounded sound. It’s a little bit Balkan styled and can be rather fun live but I am not sure I feel a large setting suits them. This show didn’t seem as engaging to me as their smaller venue show that I attended (They also didn’t play their cover of the Terry Gilliam theme song to Brazil which was a huge disappointment to me.) Overall, though I feel I seemed to be in the minority, I found their performance lacking despite the fact that they are very talented musicians. Considering Zach’s young age of a mere 21 yrs, he most likely has many many years of life to work on perfecting his art.
View the complete photoset on flickr
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