Celebrate Brooklyn Presents: DAVID BYRNE!
Prospect Park Bandshell - Brooklyn, NY
June 8, 2009
Talking Heads front man David Byrne opened the Celebrate Brooklyn 2009 season with a free show at the Prospect Park Bandshell—well, it wasn’t free for everyone, with certain ‘benefactors’ purchasing Gala tickets at a whopping $325 a pop (dinner and open bar included). Regular concertgoers were unperturbed by threats of rain, as thousands upon thousands - I’ve heard close to 30,000 - of free music lovers formed an enormous line into the Bandshell, resembling a decidedly hipster-ized version of the endless throng of attackers in 300. Those that couldn't get through the door caught the open-air action from video screens aimed towards the back of the crowd, with a few particularly aggressive fans jumped the fences. Yes, New Yorkers are absolutely bonkers for free outdoors shows; a lesson we’re reminded of every summer.
Of course, Talking Heads are one of the most influential bands in indie rock. I mean, Radiohead took their name from the Talking Heads song “Radio Head” off True Stories.
And for those of you not familiar with Byrnes’ work post-Heads, after the group disbanded around 1989 (or 1991, if you count the song on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World), Byrne has continued his long-term collaboration with mad genius producer Brian Eno, and the duo released Everything That Happens Will Happen Today last year, which Byrne self-released. The album was the first joint effort between the two since 1981's experimental LP My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and Eno's work producing and co-writing with Talking Heads. With it’s blend of electronic and gospel music, as well as elements of baroque pop and rockabilly, it’s a far more pop-oriented album than prior collaborations, with many pointing to Paul Simon and The Beach Boys as influences. Byrne assembled a large band, replete with dancers, to tour for the album during the second half of 2008 and early 2009 across the world, including two dates at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall. The evening’s set list would be almost identical to the aforementioned shows, consisting primarily of songs off Everything That Happens…, as well as several Talking Heads numbers.
OK, enough context. Amazingly, the press corps was feted with seats in the ‘Friends’ area between stage and crowd, and granted access to the wine/beer/acai-mixed-drinks open bar tent before, during, and after the show (!!!). After some furious double-fisting, and a rowdy ‘Yay Brooklyn!’ intro by Borough Prez Marty Markowitz, the silver-haired Scottish-American singer took the stage, accompanied by his eight-piece band and three interpretive dancers, with the entire ensemble draped in white. Byrne noted that he biked to the show and parked his wheels in the hipster-accommodating ‘bike valet’, before raffling off a brand new mountain bike to a random valet user (which seemed superfluous considering they already owned a bike, but a charitable gesture nonetheless).
The set began with “Strange Overtones,” the entrancing first single off the aforementioned Everything That Happens… The start of the show was fairly underwhelming, but things really picked up about 8 songs in with the Talking Heads anthem “Heaven” from their iconic rock doc Stop Making Sense, with it’s fitting lyrics: “There is a party, everyone is there / Everyone will leave at exactly the same time / Its hard to imagine that nothing at all / could be so exciting, and so much fun.” This familiar tune served as the tipping point, as the entire crowd jumped to their feet and remained there singing along and dancing for the remainder of the two-hour plus set. Bryne’s typically laconic onstage demeanor was offset by the frenzied moves of the trio of somersaulting, pirouetting, stage-sliding dancers. Their exciting and jubilant rug-cutting even at times mimicked the themes of the song’s being played, as the troupe cleverly incorporated wheeled office chairs during the wage slave tune “Life is Long.”
Even at 57 years of age, Byrne hasn’t really lost a beat. His voice sounded as full and vital as ever, ditto his series of major chord shredding sessions peppered throughout the set, which was also buoyed by the color-changing illuminated Bandshell. Talking Heads fav “Once in a Lifetime” sounded as thrilling as ever, and received the loudest applause, while “Life During Wartime” proved a bizarrely cathartic ballad.
The band returned for not one, but THREE encores [see set list below, and cue pee-pee dance], with all the performers donning tutus for the second encore, which ended with Heads classic “Burning Down the House.” The set closed with low-key lullaby “Everything That Happens,” the title track off his recent LP; an odd choice, but it’s hard to complain when you’re treated to THREE encores. All-in-all, the night proved an outstanding intro to the summer outdoor concert season, with the open bar and post-show dance party - boasting shimmying geriatrics - adding a few extra exclamation points to the proceedings. Summerstage… Qu'est-ce que c'est?
--Marlow Stern
SET LIST
Strange Overtones
I Zimbra
One Fine Day
Help Me Somebody
Houses in Motion
My Big Nurse
My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)
Heaven
Moonlight in Glory
Life Is Long
Crosseyed and Painless
Born Under Punches
Once in a Lifetime
Life During Wartime
I Feel My Stuff
Encore 1
Take Me to the River
Great Curve
Encore 2
Air
Burning Down the House
Encore 3
Everything that Happens
