BEIRUT: Lebanon is one of the few places in the world where you can rest assured that buying the cheapest ticket at a festival will not land you at the back of the stadium, near the toilets. Instead, storming the stage – much to the annoyance of decent, fee-paying dignitaries sitting in the first few rows – has become a respected tradition.
The practice guarantees that, if you’re willing to smile sweetly as you push your way front-and-center, you’ll be within spitting distance of the performers.
Maybe it’s this acceptance of a disordered world that resonates so well with Balkan musicians, many of whom openly admit to loving the Lebanese crowd and have proved a huge hit with their Mediterranean neighbors. Goran Bregovic proved no exception to this trans-Mediterranean love affair. The acclaimed band-leader and composer of some 30 film soundtracks, this best-known of Balkan music stars closed the Beirut Music and Art Festival to a fully packed “Beirut New Waterfront.”
Nowadays a sprightly 61 (somewhat more mature than when last in Lebanon in 2003, backed by a Serbian male choir and string chamber orchestra), Bregovic has still retained much of the tireless spirit that defines him and the music he has come to represent.
Staying true to his much-admired routine, the concert opened to two trumpet soloists marching slowly down the aisles of the terraced seating, exchanging melodies. They were then quickly joined by two tuba players who launched into a merry dirge – an apparent contradiction of sentiments that may be eccentric to Balkan Gypsy music – as they descended the long stairway leading to the stage.
Part of the eight-piece Wedding and Funeral Orchestra that provided Bregovic’s accompaniment, the group wore traditional Serbian costumes as they wove Balkan folk music together with Bregovic’s guitar-driven rock’n’roll tunes – a fusion he perfected during his long stint as lead guitarist for Bijelo Dugme (White Button), the most popular band in the former Yugoslavia.
Keeping his word to play “something old and something new,” Bregovic kept the crowd entertained throughout the nearly two-hour gig, launching almost immediately into the famous tango sequence, taken from Emir Kusturica’s award-winning 1995 black comic epic “Underground.”
The former Yugoslavia’s most-widely acclaimed director, Kusturica was then on friendly terms with Bregovic (both were born in Sarajevo) and they collaborated to make two of Kusturica’s most successful films.
Sporting Serbian flags and yelling lyrics, sung in a mixture of Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, the audience danced the night wildly away as Bregovic made his way through his long list of hits from his two-part album “Alkohol” and the soon to be released follow up, “Champagne for Gypsies,” as well as classics from the soundtrack to the movie “Black Cat White Cat.”
Frustrated only by ongoing technical difficulties – which sporadically muted Bregovic’s guitar and microphone, clearly dampening his enjoyment of the festivities – the night roared on flawlessly, reaching a chaotic crescendo with an extended version of “Kalashnikov,” an international favorite from the “Underground” soundtrack.
The rich variety of the fast-paced number, written in a virtually incomprehensible mixture of Gypsy/Roma and Serbian slang, even got the venue’s security staff dancing (albeit involuntarily) as the rowdy circus below moved about energetically, as if trying to imitate the senselessness of Kusturica’s fictional characters.
The energy could not have but electrified and with Abu Dhabi listed as the next stop on the Wedding and Funeral Orchestra’s tour, sound difficulties or no sound difficulties, Beirut is bound to stay as one of the more memorable locations for the Balkan music superstars.