Concert Review: David Byrne - ‘Love is the New Punk Rock’

Shea’s Theatre stop on the Who Is the Sky? tour took Buffalo to heaven

Photo by Jason Rothschild.

David Byrne brought his Who Is the Sky? tour to Shea’s Buffalo Theatre on Thursday, September 25, and offered the sold-out house an evening they aren’t likely to ever forget.

A friend described the show in a mid-gig text as “Rapture for Gen X-ers,” and yeah, he pretty much nailed it. This was so much more than a concert. The experience felt akin to attending a particularly powerful service at a church for weirdos, misfits and art-lovers, presided over by a benevolent and beautifully strange pastor.

Following the immense success of his American Utopia tour and Broadway run, a decidedly groundbreaking and heavily stylized presentation, Byrne still managed to offer something fresh, vital and new with Who is the Sky, which finds him once again collaborating with choreographer Steven Hogget.

The 13 musicians performed as mobile units, untethered by cords, their instruments strapped to their bodies, wireless headset mics transmitting their startlingly and heartrendingly full, choir-like vocal harmonies. And they danced, from start to finish, as did their bandleader, forming spontaneous circles, weaving between each other in sometimes purposefully stiff, sometimes smooth and languid motions, all the while performing this giddily idiosyncratic and highly challenging music in a flawless manner.

Photos by Jason Rothschild and Jonathan Coe.

Beneath them, and towering behind and above them in a half-circle, images were projected in startling depth and clarity, changing from song to song, and accentuating the simultaneously abstract and visceral narratives of Byrne’s songs. Then effect transformed the ornate interiors of Shea’s into a smaller scale version of Las Vegas high-tech venue The Sphere.

Hogget’s choreography is remarkable, and stands apart from most contemporary pop dance spectacles, which are almost exclusively hyper-sexualized variations of bump & grind. As interpreted by Byrne and his band, Who is the Sky’s choreography is sensual, sometimes intricate, often casual and organic, and at turns purposefully mechanical in nature. There was something deeply humanistic about the presentation, taken in sum. There was a narrative here, one that suggested an attitude of kindness, cooperation, celebration of differences, and positivity.

The setlist, which moved with grace and purpose through multiple decades of Byrne’s career, underscored this notion. Fittingly, there was a focus on material from the new album, with 6 tunes spread throughout the set. Particularly noteworthy were the ebullient, uplifting “Everybody Laughs,” with its attendant video presentation depicting everyday people doing everyday things, and “My Apartment Is My Friend,” which found the band performing within a three-dimensional photograph of Byrne’s actual New York City apartment.

Byrne capped one of several succinct between-song monologues with the wisdom-filled nugget, “Love is the new punk rock,” and the crowd - an energetic, enthusiastic and attentive mass throughout the show - went nuts. As ever, Byrne is able to say so much with so little.

Of course, there were plenty of Talking Heads songs featured, including the first appearance of “Psycho Killer” in nearly 20 years, and an elegiac show-opening take on the gorgeous “Heaven,” which brought me to tears. A thrillingly sinister romp through the deliciously twisted funk of “Houses in Motion” was also a high point.

Byrne tipped his cap to Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his brilliant 2008 collaboration with Brian Eno, via a vocal harmony-heavy take on “Strange Overtones,” a truly beautiful song that is both uplifting and wistful. (“Strange overtones in the music you are playing/We’re not alone/It is strong and you are tough/But a heart is not enough…”)

What a profoundly beautiful night this was. Somehow, the world felt a little less cold and harsh this morning…

David Byrne

Who is the Sky? Live

Thursday, September 25

Shea’s Buffalo Theatre

Heaven

Everybody Laughs

And She Was

Strange Overtones

Houses in Motion

’The T-shirt Song’ - unidentified new tune

Nothing But Flowers

This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)

What Is the Reason for it?

Like Humans Do

Don’t Be Like That

Independence Day

Slippery People

I Met the Buddha at a Downtown Party

My Apartment is my Friend

Hard Times (Paramore cover with new arrangement)

Psycho Killer

Life During Wartime

One in a Lifetime

Encore:

Everybody’s Coming To My House

Burning Down the House

Choreographer Steven Hogget

Dancer/singer Sean Donovan