Soirée à Emporter

La Blogotheque held their first Soirée à Emporter on July 30th, with "Beirut & SiDi ALi, the mighty Kocani Orkestar, Inlets, Jeremy Warmsley and David-Ivar Herman Düne. Sparrow House & Sebastian Schuller also made surprise appearances."

I can't tell you how much I enjoy watching La Blogotheque's Take Away Shows. They simply amaze me. The videos just capture a sense of spontaneity that is very unlike seeing an artist or band perform at a show. Seeing someone play in an unexpected place conjures a feeling of excitement at a different level than you normally get.

Anyway, watching this video of the first Soirée à Emporter with Beirut definitely brings that same excitement of a Take Away Show to a live show. What a brilliant concept. "Sunday Smiles" is great to watch, but the real magic here is "Siki Siki Baba," when Zach Condon plays with the Kocani Orkestar.

Via La Blogotheque:

That initial astonishment infuses this song with Kocani Orkestar. "Sunday Smile" is taut with anxiety and joy. It is bursting with Zach’s gratitude for the beauty of this moment. By the end of the song he is nearly bowing down before his guests from Macedonia.

When the call for "Siki Siki Baba" is sounded, Zach raises himself up and promptly jumps into the fray. "Watching me listen to this song," he wrote last year for Said the Gramophone, "is like watching a hyperactive four-year-old without his Ritalin. Pure excitement." Watching him not only listen but play along to this song is doubly exciting.

The crowd that only an hour ago was held spellbound by delicate sounds is now erupting, their energy in each chorus threatening to break out the windows of this former train station. Zach gushes along with the rest of them, waving his arms like some deranged conductor. His eyes are often closed or fixed upon the distant ceiling as if the sight of this swell is just a little too much. When he opens them and looks around, he can barely contain his laughter.

We are so thoroughly whipped into musical fervor that the end of the song is not an option. The crowd continues to bleat out its ecstasy in chorus after unscripted chorus. Our consolation, when the last note falls, is that this song is only the beginning of our night with Kocani Orkestar.

Let’s hope this is also only the beginning of these Soirées à Emporter.