They were great, of course, but the venue is awful, the crowd was awful, and the setlist disappointing. They only played TWO songs off the new record, Santa Fe and Goshen. I thought that was incredibly strange. Santa Fe is probably my least favorite song from Rip Tide but it was really great live.
The last show I saw had a wild and ecstatic quality to it that was completely absent in this venue. I think that every junior high student in the state was there to see the local legend and they were really annoying. They talked unbelievably loud throughout the opening set of the lovely Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab), to the point that she commented on it, as did one of the Beirut band members later.
The happiest woman in the world was standing beside me. She looked exactly like Zach but with glasses and breasts. It was his mother, doing the "that's my boy up there!" mom dance. Very cute.
One great thing is that whenever the horns come blasting through the crowd went crazy every time.
So, a less than stellar review, although it was less to do with Beirut than the atmosphere, and we still had fun. This is our only venue for a crowd larger than 800 people so it's better than nothing. I'm looking forward to the old farts who will make up the majority of the audience at next month's Morrissey show at the same place.