The Kiri Te Kanawa theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau was the the venue for the latest Come Together show. This one tackled Jonathan Demme’s epic Talking Heads film Stop Making Sense, made during the 1994 Speaking In Tongues tour. This was no mean feat and an ambitious departure from the other Come Together shows.
The vocal arsenal assembled for the performance of Dianne Swann, Julia Deans, James Milne, and Anthonie Tonnon, with a rare vocal by drummer Alastair Deverick, made the task sound effortless – Tonnon channelling David Byrne in a way so uncanny it warranted a double take.
Recreating the film intro of a bare theatrical set, beatbox and stripped back rendition of the classic Psycho Killer, set the evening up to be something special. One by one, song by song, the band numbers grew until the full nine piece assembled on stage. They worked their way through excellent versions of Heaven, Slippery People, Life During Wartime and a rousing and incredibly funky version of Burning Down The House. This is where musical director Jol Mulholland displayed his new-found percussion skills. Once In A Lifetime blew the roof off, aided by Anthonie Tonnon’s near perfect recreation of David Byrne’s mad evangelical preacher.
Wrapping up the film section with Take Me To The River and Cross-eyed And Painless would have been an incredible gig in it’s own right. Instead the band came back with a vibrant set of songs including Houses In Motion, an incredible City Of Dreams. Come Together completed the evening with a joyous Road To Nowhere.
Much credit should go to the Liberty Stage team as the show paid perfect homage to the film, from set and costumes to lighting and sound. In combination with how brilliantly the Come Together band performed this created a truly wonderful spectacle for the large, enthusiastic crowd.
Jol Mulholland mused to the audience that he didn’t realise how funky the band had to become to play this show. To miss-quote a 90s boy band – the funk was well and truly slam dunked!
Gregory Haver
Photography by Greg Haver
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