DAVID BYRNE | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Sat 27 Oct
As a friend’s dad explained to me over a pint before the gig, David Byrne is “the closest thing America has to David Bowie”. He’s solidly stamped himself as one of the biggest influences on the music of today, and after a 14-year hiatus has returned with the cheerfully ambitious album American Utopia, which hopes to uplift the listener’s spirit in the midst of such a politically divided landscape.
The tour itself combines beautifully crafted theatrics, tongue-in-cheek choreography and a profound care to the musicality of the gig, resulting in something unique. Tonight starts with Byrne alone on stage, in a chair beside a table with a plastic medical brain placed on top. Metal chains adorn the stage, rising slowly as Byrne picks up the brain and starts to sing American Utopia’s closing track Here. As he shows the audience the beauty of the brain I couldn’t help but think he’s showing us the splendours of something so important to us, yet which we take for granted every day. A very apt sentiment and a profound start.
The second song of the night, X-Press 2 and Byrne’s dance crossover hit Lazy, made the arena burst with energy: a 12-piece band danced onto the stage, two drummers and a keyboardist visibly beaming as their instruments were strapped to them. A wonderfully eccentric way of freeing up the whole stage for dancing, and there was a lot of it. As expected, the gig was peppered with Talking Heads hits – This Must Be The Place, Once In A Lifetime, Burning Down The House – which kept the audience in a state of nostalgic joy.
But the most amazing aspect of the gig was how everything seemed so cohesive and constructed, from the setlist’s order to the choreography and the decision for everyone onstage to be grey-suited and barefoot. Truthfully, the show is probably the closest we will ever get to be able to feel what it’s like to be in the mind and consciousness of David Byrne himself. You can really feel how much Byrne still loves music and performing, which in an insanely cynical climate is a breath of fresh air. Truly, one of the greatest experiences I’ve had the pleasure to witness.
words JAYDON MARTIN photos ROB SELL
