photos by Natasha Ryan

Beirut thrives on the indie-rock circuit playing music that has little to do with typical rock sounds or rhythms. On Friday its nearly all-acoustic lineup included accordion, trumpet, trombone, bass fiddle and drums; Mr. Condon switched between rotary valve flugelhorn and ukulele. Beirut rarely uses a standard rock beat; more often it has the sputtering snare drum and occasional bass-drum thuds of waltzes, tangos, polkas and Balkan dances.

On Friday night Beirut was backed for part of its set by the three dozen musicians of the Vassar Orkestar -- on strings, reeds and horns, with arrangements by Beirut's trumpeter Kelly Pratt -- who added elegant pizzicato parts and put more oomph in the oompah. Mr. Condon beckoned the audience out of the opera-house seats, to throng the stage as if the Brooklyn Academy of Music were just a bigger club. [NY Times]

Beirut played four shows in Brooklyn in two weeks. It started with a secret show at Coco66 in Greenpoint on January 27th. Then on February 4th came Music Hall of Williamsburg, and finally on Friday (2/6) and Saturday (2/7) came the two shows with the Vassar Orkestar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Kaki King opened those last two. Beirut also appeared on Letterman Friday night. Video from that, and more pictures from the last BAM show, below...

Continue reading "Beirut played Letterman (video) & BAM w/ Kaki King (pics)"

Beirut, in their first tour since last spring, is making Vassar their first stop!
Come see them perfoming live with the Vassar Orkestar!

The concert will be held in the Vassar Chapel, starting at 8pm on January 31st.
Tickets will be FREE for students holding valid Vassar IDs and limited to 1 ticket per ID.
The free ticket giveaways will be on January 26th (Monday) at 10am and 3pm with a limited run of 350 tickets per time.
Tickets will go on sale to the public at 3pm on January 26th. (Ticketweb.com)

Questions:
Q: My friends have class at both of those times! May I bring their IDs with me to get tickets for them?
A: Yes! The tickets are 1 per ID. Please bring their IDs with you so they don't miss out!

The Vassar Orchestra (Orkestar) will also be performing with Beirut at both of the sold-out shows at BAM. The orchestra will not however be with the band at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Inlets will be at Music Hall though. Many more Vassar FAQ's, and info about the orchestra, below...

Continue reading "Vassar Orkestar playing w/ Beirut @ BAM & Vassar (tickets)"