On Sunday night I saw Beirut at The Independent with 499 other eager fans who snapped up tickets to the surprise show within just a few minutes of its announcement on Twitter last week. The band was in town for a performance at The Fox theater in Oakland on Saturday night. Singer Zach Condon said, "last night we played The Fox theater...this feels a lot more like home." And how could it not?Beirut was playing for a packed crowd of rabid fans in a pocket-sized venue.
Beirut had the crowd from note one and song after song, they delivered the heat. The 90 minute set wrapped with an encore that first included three songs from the entire band and then mellowed out with a Zach Condon solo tune on Ukulele. Before long, the band had once more joined the stage to play few more brass-heavy, peppy crowd-pleasers. And yes, the encore even included a tuba solo from Ben Lanz - that guy is a stud.
