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Dig Bos

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FOTOBOM: BEIRUT @ HOUSE OF BLUES

Written by BEN STAS Posted March 18, 2019 Filed Under: Fotobom, MUSIC

beirut-6
Beirut at House of Blues / Photos by Ben Stas

If you entered the House of Blues in search of something surprising on a recent Tuesday night, you may well have left disappointed. The unexpected is not in store for you at the Beirut gig. But for the faithful who braved a snowy winter evening to pack the cavernous room on Lansdowne Street, the all-business set served up by Zach Condon and his fluidly adept band of multi-instrumentalists satisfied nonetheless. Condon’s baroque, worldly style of indie-folk is, after all, music that lends itself to crispness and precision over spontaneity.

 

Three-plus years after the release of No No No – the shortest, sparest LP in the Beirut catalog to date –Condon and the band returned with February’s more familiarly colorful Gallipoli. Fittingly, the six-piece came equipped to make their distinctive instrumental spread of brass, piano, ukulele, accordion and other accouterments sparkle on an early stop in their winter tour.

 

beirut-2

Amid the unflashy staging of a cascading white sheet lit with simple solid colors, Beirut set about performing a generous setlist that spanned more than 20 songs and 90 minutes in almost workmanlike fashion. They kept banter to a minimum, and the focus on the songs – new ones, in particular. Condon and company broke out nearly the entirety of Gallipoli in a move that occasionally threatened to stymie their momentum, though a well-placed back catalog cut was usually not far off to recalibrate things.

 

Selections from the band’s mid-00s high watermarks Gulag Orkestar and The Flying Club Cup – including wisely-chosen set closer “Nantes” – earned the biggest cheers of the night, but the adoring room was hardly stingy with its affection. The three-and-a-half years since Beirut’s last Boston appearance can feel like an eternity in the ever-churning cycle of record and tour announcements, and absence makes the heart grow fonder.

 

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An opening set by Brooklyn-based Helado Negro set the stage appropriately for the low-key evening. Singer-songwriter Roberto Carlos Lange’s ultra-minimal, sparsely-accompanied compositions unfurled mysteriously, beholden to some internal logic that challenged the audience to pick up on its wavelength.

 

Click below for more photos:

2019/02/12 - Beirut

BEN STAS

Ben Stas is an Allston-based music photographer and writer, relentlessly documenting greater Boston gigs of all stripes for a decade and counting.

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Filed Under: Fotobom, MUSIC Tagged With: beirut, Fotobom, Helado Negro, house of blues, live music

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