LA welcomes back Beirut as they continue to climb the charts

Beirut //
Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles
October 8th, 2015 //

There’s something heartwarming about watching Beirut perform live. Led by Santa Fe native Zach Condon on trumpet, flugelhorn and ukulele, the six-piece band is truly one of a kind, melding elements of world music with Balkan folk and baroque pop to create a sound that is completely its own.

But what started as a solo project conceived in Condon’s bedroom, where he wrote a large majority of Beirut’s debut album Gulag Orkestar, has turned into a commercially successful outfit. After earning U.S. Billboard 200 placement with 2007’s The Flying Club Cup and 2011’s The Rip Tide, Beirut’s latest full length No No No, which was released on 4AD in September, reached its highest position (No. 46) of them all. And seeing that kind of response has to be comforting for Condon after recently going through a tumultuous time in his life that included the divorce from his ex-wife and a trip to the hospital for exhaustion due to extensive touring.

On the second of two nights at the historic Hollywood Palladium, Condon and his sidekicks — Nick Petree (drums, percussion, melodica), Paul Collins (electric bass, upright bass), Kyle Resnick (trumpet), Ben Lanz (trombone, sousaphone, glockenspiel) and Aaron Arntz (piano, keyboards) — dove into some of Beirut’s newest material from No No No, offering fans a taste of their fourth studio album with songs like “Perth”, “As Needed” and “So Allowed”. Though the venue was far from sold out, it was good to see Condon back on stage with his band and a piece of brass in his hands.