2/28: David Byrne @ Radio City

I have now seen David Byrne four times in person:  Saturday at Radio City, once at work, once at a restaurant on 9th Avenue and at Bonnaroo in 2004.  The Bonnaroo show was in the afternoon, on one of the larger stages and with a small orchestra.  David Byrne was designated a rendezvous point, so quite a few of us gathered towards the back, sat on the grass and discussed the chances of “Road to Nowhere.”  We were all loopy and lucid, sharing gameplans and granola bars.  Directly in front of us was a woman in her early- to mid-twenties, singing along to every song and dancing like we weren’t watching.  She had, by all accounts, never been happier, and in a series of smiling spins she encompassed everything I love about music festivals.  We sat and watched this woman dance to a stellar set by David Byrne, living vicariously through her ecstatic gyrations.  Then the set ended and she walked away metaphorically.  Every gentleman in the vicinity fell in love with her, and I found out later that at least three members of our group had taken a photograph of her without mentioning it.  This is what I was thinking about as the lights went out.

this is one of the photographs

I had a vague knowledge of Brian Eno being widely regarded for something or other, but what I did not realize is that the something was an accompolished solo career and the other was the production of albums by the Talking Heads.  David Byrne walked out onto the stage with his band, all dressed in white, and delivered the “menu for the evening” while all the tardy chumps were milling about in the lobby:  songs by David Byrne and Brian Eno, both current and back in the day.  Full setlist here.

The current songs of course came from their new collaborative album:  “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today,” which you can listen to in its entirety here.  By the end of the second song, David Byrne had already performed one of my favorite Talking Heads songs, “I Zimbra,” and introduced background singers and modern dancers, all of whom were heavily involved throughout the show.  The video below, found over at Culture Bully, displays the creative thought and sincere effort put into the show by everyone involved, which invariably helps to produce such an outstanding show.

At the end of the third song I was wishing it was a standing show, and by the middle of “Crosseyed and Painless,” it was.  People did not rise and start to shake because of obligation or peer pressure, but because they were physically unable to sit still.  David Byrne’s song choices were impeccable (almost…) and the choreography was irresistable.  They even rocked the running dance on “Life During Wartime.” The show was full of short moments – like perfect note placement in “One Fine Day” or isolated coordinated movements with the dancers – that in aggregate kindled a sort of religious experience.

David Byrne played some of the best Talking Heads tunes and his new songs were rather enjoyable.  All in all I loved it, and I screamed that exact thing so loud that David Byrne may have heard me from the mezzanine.  The one and only problem with the show is that he made the poor decision to end the show on a 3rd encore:  the title track off his new album.  Sure, that’s to be expected, but not immediately after Burning Down the House!  In tutus!  Dancing like the Rockettes!  Please watch the video below and tell me how the fuck you don’t end on this.

I was hyperventilating at the end of that song…and then he came out for one more.  Had he ended the show then, this may have been the best I’d ever seen, because it was pretty goddamned close anyway.  Definitely the tops since starting this blog.

Next up:  Marcy Playground tonight at the Blender theater.