Beirut: Santa Fe | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW

How does a band return from a recording hiatus that could have permanently displaced it from the audience's eye? If you are Zach Condon and Beirut, you just go about your business and pick up where you left off three years earlier. The group's First Listen Live show at Brooklyn's intimate Bell House on a rainy September night, a concert debuting many of the songs from the brand new No No No, its first album since 2011, showed that Beirut works through its obstacles. Maybe it helps when the initial idea behind a band is ahead of the curve to begin with, no?

When Condon's Beirut first came to prominence in 2006, it emerged from Santa Fe with a fully conceived, pan-global folk sound unlike any indie sensibilities popular on the day. Zach's trumpet and flugelhorn playing was informed by local Mexican mariachi horns, his engagement with the Roma brass bands of the Balkans, and modal jazz changes via a percolating bossa nova; he favored timeless instruments (ukuleles, accordions) and images, to the rush of the modern; and the songs his quavering tenor delivered, also traveled the old continents. Live, the group grew into a formidable sextet, heavy on keyboards, horns and harmony, a world onto themselves.

At the Bell House, Beirut ran down its entire career before a sold-out audience, and the songs from No No No, the band's fourth studio, fit snuggly alongside the older material, even as it heralded directions new and familiar. "Perth," for instance, featured a touch of the Memphis soul energy, with Ben Lanz's trombone adding a brassy bump; "Fener," a song about a neighborhood in Istanbul, is built around the motorik beat interplay between Aaron Arntz's keyboards and Nick Petree's drums, before dropping down into a great g-funk slink, guided by Condon's Moog. So seemingly apart from Beirut's musical environment, yet, here they were, a natural part of it, making the audience sway endlessly. The hiatus, it seems, simply made full hearts grow fonder. -- PIOTR ORLOV

Director: Mito Habe-Evans; Producer: Saidah Blount; Videographers: Mito Habe-Evans, Lani Milton, Christopher Farber, A.J. Wilhelm; Audio Engineers: Josh Rogosin; Special Thanks: The Bell House; Executive Producer: Anya Grundmann

[hopskipbop]

When my mother was dying, I put this on a playlist for her. I always think of her when I hear it, now ❤️💔thank you for this !!!

[sweaterrpoorlyknit]

The synth at the end= the sound of happiness. 💖💖

[DangerousPancake]

I remember seeing this song in grade school, thanks to my music teacher. I oughta pick up the trumpet again

[t-rar]

Your days in one
This day undone
(The kind that breaks under)
All day at once
(for me, for you)
I'm just too young
(And what of my heart)
This day was once
(Silence before)
All grace of lost
Can't wait at all
(Can't wait at all)
Temptation won
And what ever comes through the door
I'll see it face to face
All by your place

Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son
Sign me up Santa Fe
On the cross Santa Fe
And all I want
Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son
And I and I and I alone want you to know
And I and I and I alone
And I and I and I alone want you to know
And I and I and I alone
Your days in one
This day undone
(The kind that breaks under)
All day at once
(for me, for you)
I'm just too young
(And what of my heart)
Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son
Sign me up Santa Fe
On the cross Santa Fe
And all I want
Sign me up Santa Fe
And call your son

[ThaiiNaja]

Tá aí uma banda bem injustiçada. Amo demais! ♥️

[Ponfizius]

Love this and Beirut! ❤
Love everyone who's here :))

[matthewroybal]

You make us sooo proud Zach! From a local Santa Fean

[aguinaldomarques]

Essa música tem me salvado, obrigado Beirut!

This day was once
(Silent before)
All grace of lost
Can't wait at all
(Can't wait at all)
Temptations won

And whatever comes through the door
I'll see it face to face
All by your place

[youngnope]

You know the song is good when you back to it years and years on

[anneplace]

I’ve died and gone to heaven 💕my life is now complete 🥚

[jasonfennell]

Beirut makes music you go to battle to on a neon stallion with a lightsaber made of love