David Byrne has been taking fans into the magical world of his imagination since the early ‘70s. Friday night at the Smart Financial Centre fans got to go on a journey with many cinematic yet relatable stops for his Who is the Sky? tour.
Byrne and his impressive twelve-piece ambulating band played to a full house of eager fans ready to take the trip. The adventure began with the sound of birds chirping as people took their seats with a prerecorded welcome from Byrne, encouraging the audience to be present, be polite and dance if they wanted to.
The last time Byrne was in Houston was for his 2018 American Utopia tour, a production so spectacular it went on to be a Broadway show and film produced and directed by Spike Lee.
For his Who is the Sky? tour Byrne kept the unconventional format of having his band moving and blending as one theatrical unit gliding around the stage.
The choreography created by British choreographer Steven Hoggett had the band playing off not only the Byrne’s quirky lyrics but one another adding a new depth to the song’s lyrics and rhythms. At times the band’s visual uniformity swallowed Byrne himself as he allowed and encouraged each member their time to shine.
With instruments strapped to their bodies and matching cobalt blue suits, designed by Veronica Leoni of the Calvin Klein Collections, Byrne and his band created a mesmerizing and innovative two-hour spectacular.
Byrne started the set as he sang about what happens, or better yet doesn’t happen, in the afterlife with the Talking Heads song “Heaven.” As the song ended, he raised a hand to our planet behind him, setting the tone for the evening and hopefully an example to be followed. “There she is, our heaven. As seen on TV a couple of weeks ago, the only one we have.”
Byrne strapped on his light blue acoustic guitar and went from “Heaven” to his new track “Everybody Laughs.”
Much to the delight of the crowd, the setlist featured a surprising number of Talking Heads songs inspiring enthusiasm from audience members who found no less joy dancing in the designated space of their seats versus an open dance floor.
Song after song, new and old, seemed to perfectly encapsulate the human experience and the downright urgency to remember as often we possible that we are all on this planet together.
Byrne often offered nuggets of insight into his vision, including stories and reflections from COVID times. He recalled the first instance he again had heard the sound of people talking to one another while riding his bike in New York which had become a rarity at that point.
He described falling in love with his New York City apartment during the pandemic, a place he invites the audience into with his large visuals for his song “My Apartment” where the oversized image of his bookshelf made the band appear like happy elves.
He recounted filling his days with drawing pictures and cooking new meals only to make a trip to the grocery store and watching two women angrily throw potatoes at one another. “I realized not everyone is handling this the same way I am,” he joked.
The overarching message for the night comes from director John Cameron Mitchell via Byrnes on stage paraphrasing Mitchell saying that currently, the most punk rock thing we can do right now is share love and kindness.
People of all ages adonned their oversized grey suits in a nod to Byrnes iconic Stop Making Sense look. .Byrne was pleasantly chatty and funny throughout the night, at one point laughing to himself about singing “Psycho Killer” to NASA astronauts in his previous visit to Houston, a song he began to wind down the evening with.
Byrne ended with a range of emotion starting with a stripped-down version of “Everybody’s Coming To My House” where he follows the arrangement created by the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, a version which he says really showed him what his own song was about.
As the audience clapped along from that song to “Burning Down The House” the evening was over.
Setlist:
Heaven
Everybody Laughs
And She Was
Strange Overtones
Houses In Motion
T Shirt
(Nothing but) Flowers
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
What Is The Reason For It?
Like Humans Do
When We Are Singing
Independence Day
Slippery People
I Met Buddha At A Downtown Party
My Apartment Is My Friend
Air
Psycho Killer
Life During Wartime
Once In A Lifetime
Everybody’s Coming To My House
Burning Down The House
