With ‘Vagabond,’ Beirut Brings the Party Down

Beirut’s latest video makes one thing abundantly clear: Zachary Francis Condon doesn’t really dig parties (or creepy guys who use mustache combs).

Today Beirut released the visual complement to “Vagabond,” the seventh track off of their August LP The Rip Tide. Directed by Sunset Television and shot in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the video depicts a party gone wrong as, sailors, soldiers, nurses, and townsfolk crowd a non-descript dancehall for little fun only to find that they’re all alone—even together. Condon and company provide the “jams,” of course, projecting wisps of popish melancholy from the their perch on stage.

The dejected guests frown and mope their way through the night and the camera captures it all in moody grayscale, a style, according to Sunset Television, inspired by Czech director Milos Forman (The Fireman’s Ball, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).

The party unravels as the track winds to a close. There’s a fight in the bathroom, some dance-floor harassment, and copious vomiting. Finally, the reluctant partygoers gather for a group photo—the sign they hold reads “Spring Has Risen.” Condon counters, “now as the air grows cold, the truth unfolds and I am lost and not found.” Fun, fun, fun.