Beirut @ Pitchfork Music Festival 2009
If Beirut was the only band playing the Pitchfork Music Festival I would have still came, such is my love for the New Mexican band (not to mention the fact that the last time they came to Minneapolis was three years ago). Zach Condon, backed by a full band consisting of brass, and accordion, and bass guitar, drew a huge contingent of the festival’s attendees, and disappointed not a one. With the band’s Eastern European influenced folk-gypsy sound, Beirut presented a marked change from the festival’s rock-heavy lineup, making it one of the more unique sounding acts of the evening. The band’s set spanned from Gulag Orkestar to this year’s March of the Zapotec/Realpeople Holland EP and included highlights “Elephant Gun,” “Postcards from Italy,” and Scenic World.” Arguably the most enchanting tune from the show was “Sunday Smile” in which Condon’s sorrowful vocals put the audience under a deep spell. He was also joined for said song by Final Fantasy violinist Owen Pallet, the two of them performing a stripped down rendition that tugged at the heartstrings.
SWOON.i was about two feet from your photographer.
Are you swooning over Beirut or Jon?
Maybe she’s talking about Jon ‘swooning’ face first into the fence when he needed to “sit down for a bit” during the set