It would seem David Byrne is some sort of musical genius – all signs point to affirm that.
The former Talking Heads frontman made a return visit here last evening, not long between drinks (previously here in 2018) for his Who Is The Sky? tour – the name also the title of his latest album.
More accurately I should say he hasn’t come alone, bringing his extraordinary 12-piece ensemble band in his suitcase.
From humbling beginnings at CBGB’s in the 70’s with the Talking Heads, to stardom in Jonathan Demme‘s 1984 movie Stop Making Sense (noted as the greatest concert film still), to a decades long solo-career experimenting with world music, soundtracks, genre-mixing, and inspiring collabs (Brian Eno) – Byrne has run the gamut of music, theatre, dance and multimedia.
Built upon the concept seen in Spike Lee’s excellent concert film American Utopia (2020), Byrne has assembled his band in uniformed outfits (tonight being all blue) with every musician completely mobile, incorporating choreographed dance and musical formations into the show.
This evening’s performance was solely Byrne and his group, no support acts. And a lengthy show it would prove to be.
Opening with the stripped-down string-driven Heaven, off 1979’s Fear of Music (of which I was proudly wearing the t-shirt tonight), Byrne was to mix a retrospective of Talking Heads’ back catalogue with selections of his own diverse solo-work.
Revealing pics on a giant backdrop of locations visited in Aotearoa upon arriving a few days ago, Byrne spoke about the picaresque nature of our land and joked that the tour has been funded by NZ tourism.
Breaking into And She Was, the band was now in full-force and full-swing. The vibrancy of this group is indeed infectious, but it is their synergy of sound that impresses the most.
With Byrne’s prior explorations of Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music, the inclusion of four percussionists here is continuing the study in rhythm.
Led by co-musical director Mauro Refosco, fellow percussionist’s Timothy Keiper, Stephane San Juan and Yuri Yamashita created a collective template for the band to work off.
Of Scottish ancestry but a long-time New Yorker, Byrne at 73 is a spritely performer, and was in equally strong voice. Kept on his toes by his terrific dancers; Sasha Rivero, Jordan Dobson (also saxophone), Sean Donovan, Tendayi Kuumba and Hannah Straney, they also possessed top-rate vocal harmonies as well.
A flurry of the recent crop of tunes centred the set, with Byrne revealing a panoramic view of his home, talking about his lockdown experiences living alone with My Apartment Is My Friend. Isolated sure, but what a groovy pad.
With their notable admiration for Byrne and to tag-team him throughout, this band was continuing to win hearts. The densely layered arrangements were particularly noticeable on the Heads tunes. Psycho Killer commencing with spacious deep drum notes, built into a real stonker. Complete with an additional verse not often aired on radio, Byrne introduced the song with special mention to inspirational fellow NY artist, the late Charles Arthur Russel.
More Talking Heads tunes. Life During Wartime and Once In a Lifetime followed, meaning we were very near to the back end of the night.
Solos were given to multi-instrumentalist/co-MD Ray Suen (violin/guitar), Daniel Mintseris (keys) and show-cased electric/acoustic bassist Kely Cristina Pinheiro.
And then that was that … almost. Rapturous extended applause minus houselights meant an encore was ensuing.
The Baptist gospel-choir arranged Everybody’s Coming to My House proved one of Byrne’s catchiest solo efforts, with James Brown syncopation helping the cause.
Then it had to be Burning Down the House to finish – set back in tempo, the dancers improvised free-style, and they had the drummers enforce to deliver the goods.
An advocate for many good causes, autism and an avid cycler – David Byrne and his joyous band delivered a great night of music and songs, exuberantly performed at a standard of the utmost high. Now that made perfect sense.
Mike Beck
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Setlist
Heaven
Everybody Laughs
And She Was
Strange Overtones
Houses In Motion
T Shirt
(Nothing But) Flowers
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
What Is the Reason For It?
Like Humans Do
Don’t Be Like That
Independence Day
Slippery People
I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party
My Apartment Is My Friend
Hard Times
Psycho Killer
Life During Wartime
Once In a Lifetime
(Encore)
Everybody’s Coming To My House
Burning Down the House
