I finally got to see David Byrne last night. He's been in the area before, but I was never really interested. I'd been skeptical about his solo stuff, and considered myself a Taking Heads partisan. But, after seeing the Jerry Harrison / Adrian Belew Remain In Light tour, and seeing Byrne kill it on Saturday Night Live a couple of times over the past years, I relaxed my opposition and got with reality.
And it was tremendous.
He started with the Talking Heads' "Heaven", which got a deafening standing ovation. I was shocked. To me, apparently stuck in 1987, The Heads will always be an underground band who miraculously worked their way up to a string late-career hits. And "Heaven" definitely wasn't one of those. Yes, it's in the Stop Making Sense movie (not the album) but it's still one of those deep album cuts that you'll never hear on the radio (does radio still exist?). But there it was, and the crowd loved it. Or loved him for playing it. Or loved him for being there. Or something. Deafening applause for "Heaven".
And then he basically alternated solo songs and Talking Heads songs for the next two hours. So, pretty much ideal - he did most of what you'd expect for Heads' songs : "Psycho Killer", "Life During Wartime", "Nothing But Flowers", etc., and also "Air" (??!). And his solo stuff was uniformly good, too: "Everybody Laughs" and "My Apartment is My Friend" and some others from the new album, "Independence Day" from Rei Momo, "Strange Overtones", etc..
Crappy iPhone Camera
There were a dozen people on stage with him, and they were always standing, walking, dancing, marching, leaping, while playing. Nobody sat - there was nothing to sit on. Percussion was split between four people playing a mix of acoustic and electronic drums, marching-band-style. There were four backup singers / dancers, a horn player, keys, guitar, bass, etc.. Every song was choreographed, and the floor and walls -all LED displays- were frequently part of the choreography too.
There were professional videographers out in the crowd, so I assume they're making some kind of movie of it.
He's doing a second show tonight. My father drove down from upstate NY to see it.
I love David Byrne, Talking Heads and solo..
He was so spot-on weird in the early days. The original video of “This Must Be The Place” is my favorite video (wonderful song) not discounting the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane efforts.
As an aside, I went to junior high and part of high school in Pittsburgh with Chris Frantz, who founded the Talking Heads and discovered Byrne at their alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design. Nice guy. Played the trombone in the school marching band.