Devoid of the funds to cart a band over to foreign shores, Zach Condon collaborator Brandon Bethancourt takes an innovative approach to live performances of his idiosyncratic blend of Beirut-style Balkan balladry and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone’s lo-fi indietronica. The actual “live” aspect of the performance consisted solely of the flamboyant if nervy musician singing into a vocodered mic; the rest of the musical accompaniment delivered by means of a “video orchestra.” As dire as this could have so easily been, it actually works delightfully (if rather surreally)- the pre-recorded projections are edited with stylistic flair, with Bethancourt unabashedly showing off his skills as a multi-instrumentalist, and the constant costume changes to mirror what’s going on screen was a nice touch. It would, of course, have been far better to see him with a real-life backing band but given the constraints upon him, you’ve got to applaud his audacious, engaging solution to something most musicians would have resolved with an iBook backing track. Indeed, it worked so well that the audience requested he played an second encore; when he replied that he hadn’t got any more songs, they told him to play the first song again- taken aback by the crowd’s reaction, he eventually obliged. The thing that struck me most was that if he’s that good on his own, it’s genuinely exciting to imagine how fantastic he could be with real-life musicians to back him up. Let’s just hope he doesn’t burn out as quickly as his fellow New Mexican dabbler in the Balkan arts.(Photo: Oliver Peel (Flickr))
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