Beirut - review

Mature and intimate are not necessarily what you want at a weekend gig in Brixton, though, and Condon obliged with a show big on honking brass, woozy accordion rhythms and stomping Balkan gypsy music. There was even a sousaphone solo during one giddy tune that got loud cheers.

Condon was a diffident frontman - surprisingly so, given he was precocious enough to write the startling Postcards from Italy when still a teenager - and the band seemed a little overwhelmed by the venue. They made up for that with a performance that possessed genuine feeling for the global musical styles.

As well as playing ukulele and delivering a tremulous vocal, Condon blew a trumpet alongside his brass section. It must have required some puff to switch between singing and blasting away on Scenic World, The Shrew and Mount Wroclai. The effort was worth it, though, and the trumpet is a natural fit with his songs, in contrast to those tired rock acts whose shows are larded with brass whenever they run out of ideas.  

Perhaps the best reaction was reserved for the ramshackle chanson of Nantes and its wheezing accordion. However, the new US-inspired tunes, Santa Fe, East Harlem and Goshen, pointed the way forward with urgent, affecting songwriting that deserves to make Condon a star.  

He proved he could manage perfectly well without that honking sousaphone accompaniment, too, when he sent us home by strumming a spellbinding solo version of The Penalty on his ukulele.

Beirut
O2 Academy Brixton
Stockwell Road, SW9 9SL