Review by Michelle da Silva (@michdas)
Photos by David Thai (@david_thai)
Beirut fans may now have a new girl crush. Ontario’s Basia Bulat was relatively unknown (considering how talented she is) here on the West Coast. That is, until she was flown out last minute to open for both of Beirut’s sold-out shows at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on August 9 and 10.
The petite blonde, best known for accompanying herself on autoharp, quietly made her way on stage, tuning her ukulele without looking up once before casually whispering, “Hi, I’m Basia Bulat,” which sounds like ba-zha boo-lat. She opened by showing how Joni Mitchell-esque her higher vocal register is with the uke-accompanied “It Can’t Be You,” before moving swiftly only the piano (borrowed from Beirut) for “Run” off of 2010 Polaris Prize-nominated Heart of my Own. Next up, she explored her alto range further in “Snakes and Ladders” from her 2007 debut Oh, My Darling. These two songs showed off Bulat’s folk-pop songwriting skills—comparable to Regina Spektor’s, especially when she’s at the piano—which are clearly rooted in blues and roots music as well. Before Bulat could get too comfortable behind the piano, she walked to centre stage and giddily said, “I don’t know why I’m so nervous,” before picking up a guitar and practicing her Polish in a song loosely translated to “In the Green Zoo.” Next, she moved onto the alt-country sounding “Go On,” followed by “Gold Rush,” which she accompanied herself on the autoharp. At the end of her 10 song-packed 45-minute set, Bulat wowed the crowd with gospel-style vocals in “Hush.”
About half and hour later, the six members of Beirut sauntered onto the stage with their brass horn instruments, accordion, and upright bass. Not a typical setup for a show at the Commodore, but lovely to see non-electric instruments really shine and get the spotlight in “contemporary” music. They started with “Mimizan,” a song the band contributed to a charity compilation called Dark was the Night. An “oom-pa-pa” type riff came from the solo accordion before frontman Zach Condon‘s buttery vocals filled the room.
“Elephant Gun”, a popular song that appeared on two 2007 EPs, came early in the show and encouraged a full-fledge sing-along from the crowd. Soon after, the happy mood continued with the ’50s-inspired dance-worthy “Vagabond” off this year’s The Riptide.
When Condon’s ukulele began the soft-sway intro to “Postcards from Italy” off the 2005 debut Gulag Orkestar, the crowd swelled with applause before, again, singing along to the old world-sounding tune. “Postcards” was followed by the very un-Beirut-’80s-sounding “The Concubine” from the somewhat strange 2009 EP March of the Zapotec/Holland, which the band performed “My Night with the Prostitute” from later on in their set.
On tour to promote their latest release, Beirut performed “Santa Fe,” which Condon prefaced by saying, “Here’s a song about my home town.” The song had a decidedly light pop-rock feel, and Condon’s vocals almost mimic The Cure’s Robert Smith. Before playing another song from that album, “East Harlem,” which featured lovely harmonies between Condon and trumpeter and backup vocalist Kelly Pratt, and “Port of Call,” the band honored 2007′s The Flying Cup Club with performances of “A Sunday Smile” and the popular “Nantes.”
For their encore, Beirutwrapped up with “Carousels” from the Lon Gisland EP, followed by “Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)” and “The Gulag Orkestar”. Beirut makes gem recordings and their mix bag of old world-meets-modern day songs even sounded better live. With bothVancouver performances sold out, it’s clear that a Beirut show here on the left coast was overdue, and on this night, they gave audiences exactly what they wanted.
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