by The Vibe Dog
As I sit and stare at my keyboard … I’m not exactly sure how or where to begin writing my recap of this show…
And maybe that’s because, despite having seen more concerts than I can reasonably count over the years, I walked out of Saratoga Performing Arts Center Thursday night trying to figure out exactly what the hell I had just witnessed.
It began with David Byrne and a few stringed instruments gently beginning the show with their version of the Talking Heads song, “Heaven.”
But what struck me immediately was the stage.
There were no amplifiers. No speakers. No monitors. No cables. No traditional rock-and-roll clutter.
Just Byrne, a few musicians and an enormous screen stretching across the entire stage.
And slowly, you realized the handful of players appeared to be standing on the surface of the moon – with the Earth slowly rising behind them.
It was beautiful. Ethereal. Almost otherworldly.
And it turned out to be a pretty good preview of what was coming.
Byrne and his entire 13-piece band performed completely wirelessly. Vocals came through wireless headsets, stage monitors were in-ear only, and the musicians literally wore their instruments – including the percussionists and keyboardist.
The entire stage was wide-open territory.
And everyone on it – including Byrne – was part of the choreography.
The musicians weren’t simply performing in front of the visuals.
They were inside them.
Then came the second song: “Everybody Laughs.”
And the audience suddenly lost whatever interest it had in remaining seated.
The aisles were in a state of immediate gridlock, with people dancing alone, in couples, and in groups. I looked out toward the lawn, where a slight drizzle was falling, and thousands of people appeared to be dancing almost in unison, as if they were pre-programmed to do so. I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw a crowd at SPAC respond to music that instantly.
And then David Byrne began telling stories.
My absolute favorite story occurred between the second and third songs of the night. He began by sharing that, “Some years ago when I was in high school, there was a girl in my class who seemed extraordinarily happy – all the time … Now, I was not an unhappy person … but I wondered … maybe she knows something that … I don’t know … and maybe I could figure it out … or ask her what it is. So, one day, we were talking, and she said, ‘You know what I like to do? I like to go lie in the field … by the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Food Factory … you know the one … by the highway.’ And I said, “Yeah … I know.” Then she said, ‘ … and I take LSD!’ I was a young person – in high school at this stage … but I wasn’t quite ready to take that road to happiness … yet. But later … later, I wrote a song.” At that point, they launched into one of my all-time Talking Head faves, “And She Was” … and in that moment, a song that had always somewhat mystified me with its seemingly vague lyrics, suddenly made perfect sense as a sprawling screen across the entire stage began to project a 360-degree rotating panorama of vivid imagery – suburban neighborhood houses, paved roads and lush trees, all literally floating and rotating across the screen in a slow, flying motion, mirroring the song’s lyrics about floating above the yard. That stage floor became a giant LED grid that synced perfectly with the backdrop – in this case, it simulated a vibrant, lush green lawn. And the crowd? They absolutely kept dancing in the aisles … singing and laughing along, loving every second of it!
And that was the first of the night’s great surprises for me.
I’d heard “And She Was” for years. Loved it. Sung along with it.
Tonight, a song I’d known for decades had somehow been handed back to me in a completely different form.
And that kept happening.
During “T-Shirt,” the enormous screen became a parade of funny and witty shirts, including “It’s Drunk … I’m Christmas” and “I Wish More People Were Fluent in SILENCE,” along with some politically motivated shirts.
During “My Apartment Is My Friend,” the screen became the interior of Byrne’s apartment. Somehow – and don’t ask me how – it appeared as though performers could actually hide in different places within the projected apartment, disappearing into the image and emerging from it.
I knew it was a projection. However, my eyes weren’t entirely convinced.
What ensued over the next hour and 40 minutes was an overdose of the same euphoria – from a David Byrne & Brian Eno cover, to a few more Talking Heads songs, alongside several tracks from Byrne’s solo albums, such as 2025’s “Who Is The Sky” (which, when you say it out loud, sounds somewhat like,“Who Is This Guy?”), as well as songs from 2001’s “Look Into the Eyeball” and his 1989 solo debut album, “Rei Momo.”
Just when my seat buddy, the ever-so-lovely Mrs. Vibe Dog, and I thought we had been completely “danced-out,” Byrne then slammed the entire night into overdrive beginning with Psycho Killer – a song Byrne introduced by sharing it had been co-arranged by Arthur Russell, who died from AIDS in 1992. (side note: there’s an incredible acoustic version of this song on the 2024 remaster of “Talking Heads ’77,” which features Arthur Russell on cello, which you absolutely MUST check out!).
“Psycho Killer” was musically driving, but Byrne’s vocals were almost matter-of-fact … deliberately and playfully refusing to match the energy of the music underneath him.
Then came “Life During Wartime,” and the percussion and choreography pushed everything into another gear.
In the middle of the song, the backdrop suddenly shifted to imagery depicting ICE attacks and operations throughout the United States. It was a jarring visual intrusion from the outside world into an otherwise surreal, constantly moving universe.
And then the music kept going.
Just when we thought they’d given everything they had, Byrne and company somehow found another gear and nearly blew the roof off SPAC!
The final three songs of the main set – “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime,” and “Once in a Lifetime” – were the most exciting stretch of the night.
Then came the encore.
“Everybody’s Coming to My House.”
And finally …“Burning Down the House.”
At that point, whatever remained of the audience’s collective restraint was officially gone. And so was mine.
This was a show I knew I was going to enjoy, having seen snippets of this band live from NPR’s “Tiny Desk” series and back in May, on The Late Show with Steven Colbert. However, what I was totally unprepared for was that I would be dancing almost the entire hour and 45 minutes of this show! Sitting still – or even standing still – while witnessing this was NEVER AN OPTION, my friends!
Walking out of SPAC, we kept repeating the same thing to each other: “That was unbelievable.” And somehow, we were still saying it the next morning. Maybe that’s the best way to describe what happened at SPAC on September 17th.
It wasn’t simply a concert … it was music, choreography, theater, technology, humor and visual insanity all moving together as one thing.
The stage became the moon.
The Earth rose behind the musicians.
Suburban neighborhoods floated through the air.
A lawn appeared beneath their feet.
David Byrne’s apartment became a magic trick.
The aisles became gridlocked dance floors.
And a 13-piece band somehow managed to make an enormous concert stage feel completely free.
For those of you who missed this tour (the final show was two days later, on September 19th, at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens), Byrne announced on August 27th that there will be a movie version of the tour, currently in post-production, scheduled for release sometime during the next year.
I hope they capture it.
Because there are concerts you watch.
There are concerts you hear.
And then there are concerts you somehow find yourself inside.
This was one of those, my friends!
