David Byrne, Glasgow review: 'timely and uplifting'
David Byrne’s new Who is the Sky? show is a gleeful, eccentric affair, writes Fiona Shepherd
David Byrne, Armadillo, Glasgow ★★★★★
It is enough of an achievement to helm one of the all-time greatest live rock shows but David Byrne arguably surpassed Talking Heads’ 1983 Stop Making Sense extravaganza with his utterly joyous and innovative 2018 American Utopia tour, choreographed by Annie-B Parson. Consequently, there are great expectations for the Who is the Sky? tour, which brings together many of the same musicians in a 13-strong ensemble who remain free to process around the stage with their portable instruments in a show of wireless unity.
Steven Hoggett, best known round these parts for his work on the National Theatre of Scotland’s equally influential Black Watch, has gone for continuity in his gleeful, eccentric choreography for the band/cast, all wearing utilitarian electric blue outfits. A wraparound screen and the stage itself provided the canvas for bespoke films and projections, beginning with a moonwalker’s view of planet earth and a soaring torch song performance of Talking Heads’ Heaven, before taking in images of cookie cutter suburbia, ICE attacks on protesters, Dumbarton’s Overtoun House (a nod to Byrne’s roots) and the interior of his New York apartment where he spent lockdown alone, ruminating and writing.
Byrne’s gentle, idiosyncratic response to this mad world was the basis for the setlist choice, ranging far and wide across his back catalogue, from the quirky funk of Houses In Motion to the carnival samba of What Is the Reason For It? The fluidity of movement made it easier to put soloists in the spotlight, while band introductions were imaginatively conveyed with the musicians’ names swirling about on the screen equivalent to their position on the stage.
Psycho Killer was a rhapsody in blue, which intensified for a warp speed Life During Wartime. Once in a Lifetime felt like an alternative sermon while the group gathered round one lightbulb for a gospel funk rendition of Everybody’s Coming To My House. Like American Utopia, this is a timely and uplifting show which must be seen when it hits Edinburgh this summer.
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