Written by: Geoff Tischman

Playing in New York is always a bit of a homecoming for Beirut.

Singer and founder Zach Condon may hail from New Mexico, but New York was where the band played their first shows back in 2006 for their seminal Gulag Orkestar album.

Still touring behind 2015’s fabulous No No No record, Beirut came to the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester the other night and they were in fine form.

A breezy confluence of jazz, world music and indie rock, Beirut’s music is, in many ways, uncategorizable. There are plaintive battlemarches, wistful ballads, and anguished stomps, all punctuated by wrenching trumpet fills that cascade from heartbreak to triumph and back again. Condon and his band move easily from rousing uptempo arrangements to the kind of crushing, credit rolling numbers that will make you feel faultlines all around your heart.

They’re a global indie rock orchestra and they put on a terrific show.