Beirut May 8, 2009

Supporting act is Shearwater.

On sale: Friday 16 January @ 9am

Tickets - £17.00

BEIRUT is the work of the 20 year old Zach Condon. His music is inspired by a love of European folk music, as filtered by a fertile imagination raised in New Mexico and currently resident in Brooklyn.

Bringing an arsenal of accordions, mandolins, euphoniums, and glockenspiels. Wunderkind Zach Condon fronts the ragtag ensemble, performing ukulele-tinged brass band laments wrought from global experience and youthful optimism.

Following 'Gulag Orkestar' with it's Eastern European instrumentation and the 'Flying Club Cup', with each song evoking a different French city, Condon is experimenting with a new sound, to be aired on ‘March of the Zapotec’, to be released in February 2009, recorded in Mexico with the help of Oaxacan march masters The Jimenez Band.

A second release, ‘Holland,’ showcases Zach's latest bedroom-style recordings under his former moniker Realpeople, Taken together, the two EPs proudly display the scope of Beirut's work over the last year.

Austin's SHEARWATER plumb new depths of atmosphere while finding the most haunting and memorable melodies of their career with new album Rook. Jonathan Meiburg's bold, soaring voice, occasionally falsetto, still anchors the songs, which broaden the pastoral prog-folk chaotic celestial mindfuckery into new realms. Beyond the continuing touchstones of late Talk Talk, Nico and John Cale, there are now allusions to Van Morrison, hints of Joni Mitchell. All this is set in a newly lush sonic gorgeousness of harp, strings and woodwinds atop the magnificent rhythm section of Thor Harris and Kim Burke

Age: +14

Official Website: http://www.barflyclub.com/theforum/whatson/event/22101.aspx#Beirut+%2b+Shearwater