Art rock icon, 80’s superstar, world music promoter and avid cyclist David Byrne brought his band, backup singers, dancers and a load of Brian Eno collaborations to the posh and acoustically impeccable Civic Opera House for a two hour show that literally almost brought down the house on Sunday night.
Seriously. During “Burning Down The House” ( the one non -Eno exception explained away by Byrne saying pretty much “Oh well”) with the house lights up, the balconies shook like the old Chicago Stadium during the Jordan years. The venue has never experienced that kind of audience reaction. Not even for Wagner!
The performers were dressed all in white with David’s whitened mane blending nicely with the suit.
One problem with the Opera House is the distance of the stage from the audience due to the huge gap caused by theorchestra pit, but the sound of the room makes up for any such quibbles. The place was designed to play to the rafters and wherever one was seated, it was almost headphone quality.
Bryne set the evening’s program by explaining there would be doing songs from the new Byrne-Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, songs from other Eno-Byrne projects as well as songs performed with “other musicians” as if he couldn’t remember the name Talking Heads. Luckily he remembered the songs.
He started with “Strange Overtones” the lead track off the new disc then segued into “I Zimbra” from Fear of Music and off and away we went with songs from other projects like My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, Byrne’s score for Twyla Tharps’s The Catherine Wheel and a sampling of some of Talking Heads’ best songs from Remain In Light and Fear of Music (“Crosseyed and Painless,” “Once In A Lifetime,” “The Big Curve,” “Life During Wartime,” “Air!!”)
It’s nice to see that Byrne is still nerdy after all these years. His stage presence is unlike anyone else’s and he worked well with the three dancers who flashed modern and interpretive moves for at least half the songs. The dancers were the main topic of conversation and argument among people I talked with after the show. The reaction was pretty much split with some thinking they were a distraction while others felt that David Byrne has always brought performance to the stage and he’s David Byrne and he can do whatever he wants.
The music certainly didn’t need the enhancement but I thought it made it a show and was something special we didn’t expect, which is what you want from Byrne, the unexpected. Although the male dancer was a little over the top especially when he leap frogged over David at one point. There also was a routine on chairs that almost played like a tribute to Basic Instinct but all in all, it worked.
One of the most impressive things about the show was the strength and range of Byrne’s voice. His back up singers who included Jenni Mulduar (Maria’s daughter) were excellent and they danced too. Not as flashy as the trio but they looked cool and added to the music with their voices.
By the time Byrne ended the third encore with an acoustic version of “Everything That happens Will Happen Today” followed by yet another standing ovation, the audience finally allowed him to leave the stage for the night, but if he had come back for “Memories Cant Wait,” I don’t think anyone would’ve headed for the exits.
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