David Byrne is an
erratic character. His post-Talking Heads work has been spotty and
inconsistent, but he has been involved in a variety of musical,
theatrical, and film collaborations, he is a well-regarded writer,
and now he's become something of a cultural icon offering sage advice
about music, technology, and people. Despite that I didn't find his
new album particularly exciting (yes, even though most of it was
co-written by Brian
Eno), there has been quite a bit of hype about his stage show, so
I figured it was worth a shot.
Artist: David Byrne
Venue: Tempodrom
Location: Berlin,
Germany
Date: 27 June 2018
Opening Act: Yasmine
Hamdan
Setlist:
01. Here
01. Here
02. Lazy [X-Press 2
song]
03. I Zimbra [Talking
Heads song; lyrics adapted from "Gadji beri bimba" by Hugo
Ball]
04. Slippery People
[Talking Heads song]
05. I Should Watch TV
[originally performed with St.
Vincent]
06. Dog's Mind
07. Everybody's Coming
to My House
08. This Must Be the
Place (Naive Melody) [Talking Heads song]
09. Once in a Lifetime
[Talking Heads song]
10. Doing the Right
Thing
11. Toe Jam [Brighton
Port Authority song]
12. Born Under Punches
(The Heat Goes On) [Talking Heads song]
13. I Dance Like This
14. Bullet
15. Every Day Is a
Miracle
16. Like Humans Do
17. Blind [Talking
Heads song]
18. Burning Down the
House [Talking Heads song]
Encore 1:
19. Dancing Together
[originally performed with Fatboy Slim]
20. The Great Curve
[Talking Heads song]
Encore 2:
21. Hell You Talmbout
[Janelle Monáe cover]
Yasmine Hamdan
is a Lebanese singer who has
worked in a variety of styles. At this show, she was joined by a
drummer, a guitarist, and a guy who seemed to mostly be playing
samples. The sound was a
balance of modern electronic and traditional
Arabic folk music. Half
of the drummer's kit was synthetic and the guitarist played half the
set with an effects-laden
ebow (and one song with an
actual bow). Hamdan was a strong vocalist, and combined with the
rhythmic music, she produced a rather
dramatic effect. The
guitarist and drummer were also quite skilled and had unique styles
that helped set the mood, but the song structures were somewhat
formless and nebulous. Despite the many aspects I enjoyed, it felt
like there was an element I was missing, although this may have been
related to my inability to understand the lyrics.
[Yasmine Hamdan.]
For
David Byrne's set,
the stage was surrounded in the back and on the sides by long, thin
curtain strands,
such that the audience could just barely see if a person stood behind
them and the musicians could pass right through while performing. For
the opening song, "Here", Byrne sat a table with a plastic
brain on it and proceeded to sing while seated
and then while manipulating
the brain. The members of his band performed from offstage and
occasionally appeared throughout the first two numbers, finally
appearing in full for the classic Talking Heads song "I Zimbra",
which was also when the audience collectively decided to stand up and
start dancing.
The
band consisted of twelve members. Six of them played various forms of
percussion: Gustavo Di Dalva, Daniel Freedman, Aaron Johnston, Tim
Keiper, Mauro Refosco, and Davi Vieira. Chris Giarmo and Tendayi
Kuumba provided backing vocals. Bobby Wooten played bass, Angie Swan
played guitar, and Karl Mansfield played keyboards. Byrne himself
also played
electric guitar on several
songs. All twelve performers wore matching gray suits and carried
their instruments. Other than the occasional prop, there was nothing
on stage. There was no drumset, no keyboard rack, no microphone
stand, and no effects boards. Byrne claimed that everything was
performed live, but he left out the important detail that all effects
and processing had to be done by somebody offstage. The sound crew
must have been skilled and well-practiced.
The
freedom of movement on stage was taken to full advantage. Even when
the band were playing less
exciting songs, the action on stage kept things interesting. At
different points they stood in a chorus line, rotated in a circle,
stood just offstage with their instruments peeking through the
curtains, ran across the stage while a bright light at the front of
the stage cast shadows upon the curtains, and danced about in every
combination you could imagine. It made for a very energetic
experience.
The
choice of songs
was a widely mixed bag.
Byrne played seven songs from his new album, American
Utopia,
eight Talking Heads songs (all but one from the classic dance-rock
albums Fear of
Music,
Remain in Light,
and Speaking in
Tongues),
four songs from various collaborative projects, one older solo song
("Like Humans Do"), and one cover. Oddly,
or not, there was no overlap in material with the Tom
Tom Club show I saw back in 2011.
The
highlights were, just as one might expect, the classic Talking Heads
songs. The band brought the rhythmic complexity of the songs alive in
a way that was
almost hard to believe was real. The band was tight despite their
physical choreography and the grooves were irresistible. The other
particularly notable song was the cover of "Hell You Talmbout"
by Janelle Monáe. The entire band performed percussion while
chanting variations of "Say his name!" and listing the
names of various Black Americans
who
were murdered by the police and/or as the result of racist violence.
While
the two
consistent threads
in Byrne's songs are
a critical but wise and witty perspective on human perspective and
a love of percussion,
his
songs explore a wealth of styles, albeit with varying levels of
success. On stage, I often felt like the shifts in tone and sound
were arbitrary and subject to whimsy. Sometimes it seemed like he was
being weird just to be weird, or trying something purely for the sake
of trying it. While I fundamentally appreciate such a willingness to
experiment, the result is often that Byrne's songs come across as
jarring, bizarre, ridiculous, or nonsensical. One
gets the impression that Byrne's brain works in unusual ways, but
even if half of his songs don't quite work, the half that do are
brilliant. Combined with a very creative stage set, it made for a
show well worth seeing.
[David Byrne.]
Scores:
Yasmine Hamdan: B-
David Byrne: B+