Beirut: Eager (but Not Quite Ready) to Take On the World

As a teenager, Zach Condon dropped out of high school and eventually went to Paris, where he encountered Roma, or Gypsy, music. "When I came back to America, I realized that world music is no joke -- it really has a lot to it," Condon, now 20, told Pitchfork Media.

Condon's group, Beirut, made its D.C. debut at Warehouse Next Door on Wednesday, and the ramshackle concert felt like a talent show performance by an earnest bunch that indeed has just discovered that "world music is no joke." (The name Beirut isn't a jape either, just an awkward coincidence in the face of current events.) Imagine a one-armed Balkan band in training and you'll get a sense of Beirut's loose approximation of Eastern European music, filtered through an indie-rock worldview. Accordion, keyboards, baritone saxophone, ukuleles, violin, cello and percussion all clattered for attention, but it was the drum kit that dominated in the club's crummy acoustics.

But Condon's appealing, Rufus Wainwright-like croon -- a belting, slurring, theatrical wail -- was easily heard over the galloping drums on songs like "Postcards From Italy" and "The Canals of Our City." While his trumpet playing is average, Condon's bright personality and blossoming talent are obvious, and it's easy to understand why his not-quite-ripe music is still appetizing.

Even before the release of Beirut's debut CD, "Gulag Orkestar," the project had been hotly hyped on blogs, and a long line for the concert curled down Seventh Street NW and around New York Avenue well before the doors opened. But at least half the queue was left out in the hot August air, missing the 40-minute show. There's no doubt, though, that Condon and company will be back, at a larger venue. That's no joke. -- Christopher Porter