Sunday, October 12, 2008

Byrne Baby, Byrne*

I've always wanted see Talking Heads in concert, circa 1986, but unfortunately no one's been able to work out that whole time travel thing. The music of Talking Heads was the soundtrack of high school and college for me, and my high school boyfriend and I loved the movie True Stories. After we broke up, I showed it to almost every guy I dated as a little test to be sure they got me. I knew Steve was a keeper when he a) had already seen it, and b) liked it as much as I did.
So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out David Byrne was performing in Park City. I found out online while Steve was outside with the kids, so I rushed outside to tell him. I was surprised when his first reaction was "Well, he's kind of old," but when my reply was "He's not the only one," he didn't need much convincing and got us tickets the next day.
I had been reading reviews of Byrne's concerts on this tour, and I found out that at some shows he had performed one of my all time favorite Talking Heads songs "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)." Check it out:



(How cool is Tina Weymouth in this video? She's my hero).

I was fantasizing of Byrne singing this at the concert the other day while driving around, and it just happened to come on my favorite radio station (the coolest one in our area is run by one of the local high schools). I took it as a sign. Then yesterday I had my iPod on shuffle and there it was again, and the odds of that happening are about 2,000/1. More serendipity. I figured it had to happen.
So we went to the concert which was in the Eccles Performing Art Center, which is actually attached to Park City High School. I wasn't too optimistic about the venue since I had seen films at the Sundance Film Festival there and it really feels like a larger version of your typical high school auditorium. I was feeling even less optimistic when I saw that our seats were on the last row of the main floor, but when the concert started I changed my attitude when I found I was able to stand on my seat and see perfectly. The sound was great, Byrne's voice was as good as ever (no hint of age), and he had great back-up singers and dancers (yes, dancers). He started out playing stuff from his and Brian Eno's new album "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," which was fantastic, but I have to say I was really excited when he started breaking into Talking Heads territory. He played "Heaven," "Life During Wartime," and an amazing, energetic version of "Burning Down The House." I waited and waited for "Naive Melody," but it never came. I was happy enough when I finally got to hear "Once In A Lifetime" live (which, by the way, was the first music video I ever saw.). Here's a little video nugget of it at the concert. It's the best quality I could get from the last row standing on my seat in 3 inch heels, so keep your expectations low:



Was I disappointed I didn't get to hear "Naive Melody?" A little. But it really was one of the best concerts of my life (even without Tina Weymouth), so good in fact I think I can now take seeing Talking Heads circa '86 off my most desired concerts list.

*Sidenote: Did you know that David Byrne loves the architecture of Mormon Temples? Now you do.

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