I saw David Byrne Sunday night at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, to be honest. Side note: Talking Heads were my favorite band until I discovered Ultravox in 1978, but I kind of lost interest in TH altogether around the time of their third LP. Keep in mind, too, that my perspective may be colored by the fact that I didn't have to pay for my very pricey seat.
The small ensemble of musicians/backing vocalists onstage with him were very tight and the sound quality was great overall. Byrne's improved his guitar playing quite a bit, his presence was engagingly quirky as is to be expected, and his voice was tremendously powerful. Although the new material from his current CD collaboration with Eno has almost a gospel feel to it, it was nicely integrated into a well-paced set.
I would be tempted to say that the evening was an unqualified success except for the fact that the three dancers Byrne had with him were distractingly bad and their choreography was TERRIBLE! He would have been better served with a more interesting light show and/or video projections on the stage backdrop . . . which of course made me think of John Foxx and what marvelous things he could do if he were to perform in a space like that. (No, I'm not bitter that I was in DC over the weekend instead of Leeds – no, not at all!
) How nice it would be to see him perform in a beautiful venue like the Warner, which is a restored vintage movie theater — elegant, stately, gorgeous, but not stuffy. Unfortunately, John Foxx could not likely draw the kind of crowds that David Byrne can, so I don't think there's much chance he could sell out the Warner (which seats about 2,100) unless it was the only show he performed in North America.
Still, it's fun to think about the possibilities . . .
