Concert Review: David Byrne and Friends

Main Event: David Byrne and Friends
Opening Acts: Si*Se, The Arcade Fire, the Tosca Strings, and The Extra Action Marching Band
Venue: The Hollywood Bowl
Location: Hollywood, CA
Date: Sunday June 26, 2005

I never imagined I’d be able to see one of my favorite bands, the Talking Heads, play live, so to see David Byrne and hear him perform some great Talking Heads songs, it was such a wonderful experience.

This marks my first trip to the famous and newly renovated Hollywood Bowl. It is actually named “The Best Major Outdoor Venue” by Pollstar magazine. The stage is a half dome and the 18,000 seats, or benches rather, radiate out to the front and then shoot straight up the mountain. From most seats you have a nice view of the Hollywood sign in-between some more mountains. On either side of the stage there are big screen monitors showing close-ups of the performers onstage. Then further into the crowd on the sides there were 2 more monitors that were on a 1 second delay due to the sound delay caused by the distance to the stage.

6pm Picnic
There were many picnic areas inside and surrounding the Bowl. Also, unlike a sporting event, you can bring anything inside the Bowl, except weapons of course. People brought video and still cameras, take-out or food from home, and bottles of wine.

Around 8:30pm the sun finally set and we were watching under the stars. It was lovely, but surprisingly cold. Come on LA weather!

7:00-7:45pm Si*Se
This is a Latin/Hip-Hop/Electronica band from NYC. The female lead’s family is from the Dominican Republic, so she sings in both Spanish and English. Instruments in the band are keyboard, bass, drums, and violin. Actually, every band of the night had a violin. I would like to say I paid attention to this band, but the sun was still out and everyone was talking loud. Instead, I read the program telling about this concert series and the individual bands playing that night. The music was a nice backdrop while reading.

8:00-8:45pm The Arcade Fire with the Tosca Strings
This is a seven man band from Montreal, Quebec who just released their debut album Funeral in Sept. 2004. The 2 lead singers, Win Butler and Regina Chassagne, are recently married. I’ve heard some songs from this band, but not enough to call myself a fan yet. But there were plenty of teens and twenty-something’s in attendance who knew all the words and were very excited. I know people don’t like comparisons, but to me the band sounded like a mix of The Cure, Modest Mouse, and the girl sounds like Bjork to me.

There are many instruments onstage and they all exchange throughout the set. Some instruments are violin, upright bass, drums, guitar, accordion, keys, and then a guy who ran around the stage hitting anything he could with sticks when he wasn’t playing one of the 5 instruments he could have been playing. There was also an interesting drum, which I will refer to as a drum-tree. Many little round drums were connected to a pole, each with a stick to hit it. If you press a lever near the bottom, all the drums are hit simultaneously.

After a few songs, they brought on the Tosca Strings Quartet from Austin, which consisted of cellos, violins, and a viola. So now there were many people onstage playing many instruments.

I personally couldn’t get into The Arcade Fire that much in this venue. It was still too light out to see the close ups on the big screens and I didn’t think the sound was very good. Everyone in the band sang, which made the lead singers voices too soft and hard to understand. They would be better in a smaller venue where you can actually see and interact with the band. All of their fans in the crowd thankfully ran out of their seats and down to the next level to all dance together.

9:00-10:20pm David Byrne with the Tosca Strings and The Extra Action Marching Band
Here at last was the main event! David Byrne came out in a pastel pink suit, looking young with his white spiky haircut. Center stage in front of the drummer was a row of guitars for Byrne to choose from. To the left was a percussionist who played a wooden xylophone gave the set a Caribbean feel. To the right was a bass player, who sang backup vocals, and then the Tosca Strings, who accompanied Byrne on his last solo album Grown Backwards.

His voice was clear and as interesting as it’s always been. He did a 50/50 mix of solo songs and Talking Heads songs, which was a pleasant surprise. I figured he would do mostly new songs, but I wasn’t complaining! The first big hit he played was “Psycho Killer”. At first with the strings doing the familiar beat and the Caribbean flare mixing in, it was a very different and light song, until the end when Byrne picked up his guitar and blasted the rest out.

Mid-set, he brought out the Arcade Fire to sing, “This Must Be the Place” with him. Four of the men sang together on one mic while Regina played the steel drum. Byrne sang most of the song with them, but occasionally stepped back to dance and enjoy the big stage.

To end the night, Byrne brought out The Extra Action Marching Band from San Francisco. Imagine your high school marching band now in their 20’s and 30’s in Halloween/Mardi Gras/punk rocker-type costumes with scantily-clad cheerleaders/flag girls and drag queens, playing all the marching band instruments you know and love. They came in from the side, playing while walking through the crowd as they made it onto the stage. I thought there was a lot of people on the stage before, but now its more like 50 all clumped in different areas either playing instruments, singing, or dancing.

All together they did “Burning Down the House,” which sounded great with the band. The dancing girls and pretty guys in drag were choreographed with all types of sexy cheerleader moves, which reminded me of Superbowl Halftime show. So when we thought it couldn’t get any better, Byrne says, “Here’s another number we haven’t rehearsed.” The horns start blowing and he’s doing a cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love.” No one could believe it at first, but soon everyone was completely enjoying it. I couldn’t help but laugh when Byrne started singing, “Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh…etc.” It was great and such a huge spectacle! The cheerleaders were having a dance orgy in front of Byrne. I noticed he was bending over while trying to sing these incredibly hard and fast lyrics and realized he was reading them off of a piece of paper by his feet. Now that was great! You may be thinking, why would he sing this song? Well, I don’t know, but out of every song on the radio today to fit his style, its one of the most interesting and difficult choices he could have made, and I love him for it. What a way to end the night!

–with the Tosca Strings:
1. The Great Intoxication (Look Into The Eyeball)
2. Glass, Concrete and Stone (Grown Backwards)
3. I Zimbra (Talking Heads, Fear of Music)
4. Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Thievery Corporation, Cosmic Game)
5. Finite = Allright (Feelings)
6. Sad Song (David Byrne)
7. Like Humans Do (Look Into the Eyeball)
8. Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads, Little Creatures)
9. “Let’s All Sing the Hippie Song (That Grandpa Taught Me)” (unknown cover)
10. Psycho Killer (Talking Heads, ’77)
11. Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place) (Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues) [with Arcade Fire]
12. What a Day That Was (Stop Making Sense & The Score to “The Catherine Wheel”)

–with the Extra-Action Marching Band:
13. Don’t Fence Me In (Red Hot & Blue: a tribute to Cole Porter)
14. Burning Down The House (Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues)
15. Crazy in Love (Beyoncé cover)