A Virtual David Byrne Experience - by CyberYukon

Look Through This Eyeball

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Around 9:00 PM the gates opened and everyone piled in. First Avenue is a really different place--half bar, half auditorium. I snapped a picture of the bands' gig crates as I was waiting for the show to begin. At about 9:30 PM, with the hall nicely stuffing itself full, Joe Henry began his opening act. If you've never heard Joe play, I'd describe him as a cross between Springsteen and Bruce Hornsby.

Joe finishes, thanks the crowd and departs. After a brief pause, on cometh the star of the show...the man with the plan...Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you..Mr. David Byrne!!

After explaining why the show started so late (a speaker fried during the sound check--David, didn't you hear me in the crowd? I told you I'd fix it..) for the next two hours he rips through an amazingly killer set...

...covering Talking Heads greats like "Once in a Lifetime", "And She Was", "Sex and Violins" and "What a Day That Was"...

...while also performing new material such as "Like Humans Do", "The Revolution" and "Desconocido Soy". Other tunes include "Marching Through the Wilderness", "A Soft Seduction" and "Buck Naked". David gives an absolutely beautiful version of "The Great Intoxication"...

And if there was any one picture of the bunch that best conveys David's demeanor that night, it must be this one. Despite the problems with the speaker during the sound check and the fact that the show started at a time when most people are going to bed David is nothing but professional, entertaining (and entertained) and really quite comfortable.His smile tells it all...

At one point David tells a story of how he wrote "(Nothing But) Flowers" while driving around the suburbs of Minneapolis all those years ago. He then slowly strums/sings the first few lines of the song...and then WHAM!! Jumps into a great funk version that sends the whole place into an uproar.

In between two songs the very drunk guy next to me yells out across the quiet crowd "David--we feeeeeeel for you!!". David, caught on the spot, derails and begins to laugh.It takes him a few minutes to compose himself--and the crowd laughs along with him. What a moment!!

The crowd is a mixture of older fans and younger fans. Mike admits later that he was surprised to see so many young fans there. And everyone knows the words, and everyone sings along.

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