In a moving FB post back in December, Zach Condon, founder of the band Beirut, spoke openly about the physical and mental challenges he faced when touring and performing live. It was impressive and heartening to see such a popular and well regarded artist talking publicly about a subject that not so long ago would have been well hidden or smothered by legal or illegal drugs. Kudos to him.
Henry really loved the music of Beirut. I think his older brother Alex may have been the first to turn us on to Beirut in 2006 and they rapidly became a family favorite. I have seen them perform any number of times but sadly none with Henry.
Elsewhere on this site you can see Henry’s rendition of Beirut’s “The Penalty” which he also surprised us all by performing at the 2009 or 2010 New Year’s Eve Talent Show. And if you ever watch the fantastic, heart-breaking video (also on this site) that Alex put together in an all-nighter before Henry’s Memorial Service you will notice the music is also Beirut, in this case the song “The Rip Tide”. I can never hear that song again without tearing up.
Today Beirut released a double album called Artifacts of old and unreleased songs and I think we could all do a lot worse than to sit back and listen to this young artist’s eclectic early music, full of creativity, hope, brass, ukuleles and accordions, and remember Henry.
Zach’s post:
