Newcomers to this place are probably beginning to think it is a London restaurant review site.  Apologies to those who really couldn’t care less about where I fill my belly before gigs (and in particular those who live in the geographically obscure area known as “outside London”).  Anyway, as I was seeing Beirut at the Roundhouse, a trip to a Russian/east European restaurant in the Chalk farm area seemed logical.  And as the Ukrainian beef goulash ladled out at Trojka was probably my highpoint of the evening, it would be wholly wrong of me not to highlight it.

That hearty stew as followed by something even stodgier in the form of two pretty mediocre support bands: The Twilight Sad (like all your favourite Scottish bands in one portable package – a bit Franz F, a bit Mogwai, a bit Idlewild), and Tunng (who are, and I would have said this even if I hadn’t been there with Neil, very much a poor man’s Dark Captain Light Captain).  Given the itinerant musical stylings of Beirut, I would have perhaps thought it more appropriate to have an actual authentic Russian/Polish/Balkan folk band or something on first.  But then I suppose there is a risk that they might have blown Beirut off stage, huh?

In yet another of the “This patient is dead!”/”Uh, doctor, you won’t find a pulse there” moments that characterise this site’s attitude to what the kids are listening to these days, I’m not terribly familiar with the work of Beirut other than the articles I read about them in the broadsheets (or Berliners these days).  But people really do love them, don’t they?  Especially the guy behind me who was shouting “Zach!  You are buff!” all through the gig.  And while I can concede that what they do is technically impressive (lots of instrument-swapping, with some great trumpet and flugelhorn playing in particular), only once did I come close – I think- to truly sharing the crowd’s passion.  That moment didn’t arrive until the encore, when they played the mariachi waltz which I’m told was the title track from their first album, with its melodic vocal refrain which people sang all the way out the doors and down the Chalk Farm Road into the cold, dark Western European night.