Otouto’s artful, wispy little non-songs hung limply in the air over a disinterested crowd at the Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom. Hazel Brown stared at her guitar in a careful way as she picked out awkward notes and Martha crowded over her synth in a similarly concentrated way. Only drummer Kishore Ryan played with anything resembling grace or skill, still looking like the ringer in this odd little art pop collective. Their arch, layered ditties lacked immersive power, fluttering off the stage in a wistful, slightly tedious way that only served to illustrate the lack of musical talent behind their cute musical ideas.
Beirut didn’t fare much better, unfortunately. Zach Condon’s glorious collective of über-nerds took to the stage without much fanfare and gathered up a heavy range of brass to open the show, armfuls of tubas and trumpets that promised a rich and atmospheric set to match their doleful, atmospheric albums. Scenic World opened the set, with its rolling piano accordion, and Zach’s Morrissey-esque voice winged its way across the room, but immediately it felt like something was missing. On record and at previous shows, Beirut have created an aged, romantic mood that goes deeper than the trilling horns, but the sound at the Hi-Fi seemed smaller than the sum of its parts. We were watching an OK indie band with a particular aesthetic bent, not a ghostly reminder of lost musical worlds.
The set was populated with tracks from 2011 album The Rip Tide, including an early appearance of bouncing pop single East Harlem and a show-closing performance of Santa Fe, but even these relatively upbeat songs fell flat. There was nothing wrong with them, really, but they lacked energy. In the end those tunes, which promised to lift the plodding delivery of early classics like Gulag Orkestar, Nantes and Cherbourg, only contributed to an evening of quietly boring music.
BY SIMONE UBALDI
LOVED: The elephant-like sway of tuba player Ben Lanz.
HATED: The overall mediocrity.
DRANK: Nothing. I am a professional cricket.
