Former Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier batted lead-off for Beirut. The French songstress set and fit the foreign flair of the evening. She pulled off one of the toughest live set-ups, solo with only an electric guitar, with both confidence and charisma. On the whole she was classy opener that was all the cooler simply for being French.

Though I originally wondered if Beirut might be a concert enjoyed best in a proper theater with seats, boxes, and a phantom, the band quickly proved that this would most definitely be a rock show. Beirut buoyed the start of their set with standouts "The Shrew" and "Elephant Gun." The brass sounded powerful and pristine, the drums a bouncy myriad of momentum, Condon's voice a pure baritone croon, and the accordion was of course: European.

Beirut segued into the meat of their performance with transcendent cuts of "Postcards from Italy" and "Forks and Knives." Drawing equally upon the spectrum of their catalogue, Beirut barely played a majority of their 9 track new album. Two tunes from the Rip Tide, the aforementioned "East Harlem" and "Sante Fe," sounded especially gorgeous live. Both also perfectly showcased the new scaled back style of song writing Condon took to on their latest record.

Spoiling us with a double encore, tubist, trombonist, and pianist Ben Lanz stole the show on closer, Siki Siki Baba (a Kokani Orkestar cover). His solo on Tuba was staggering and brought out the most emotion of the night from the band.

Beirut played a rocking show on decidedly non-rock instruments. Kids would be clamoring to sign up for band class if they witnessed the way Beirut blew away the Fillmore crowd. I bet there are also a few passports itching to be stamped after that concert as well.