David Byrne rips up the live show rule book on stage in Oxford… and it’s a triumph

David Byrne 

New Theatre, Oxford                                                Touring again Oct 21-Nov 2

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At many pop concerts, the merchandise stall sells something billed as the tour book, which is often a glossy, overpriced leaflet with a mental age of five. 

On David Byrne’s American Utopia tour, the only book for sale is a proper one: a 340-page tome called How Music Works, which Byrne wrote himself.

The show opens with him sitting alone at a desk, holding a brain, like Hamlet with a twist of self-mockery. 

David Byrne (above) has thought hard about how live music works – and reinvented it. Everybody wears a grey suit, to concentrate the mind on the music and the movement

David Byrne (above) has thought hard about how live music works – and reinvented it. Everybody wears a grey suit, to concentrate the mind on the music and the movement

In his 11 years with Talking Heads, Byrne was famous for making music that appealed equally to the head and the hips. Now, 30 years on, he also warms the heart and tickles the ribs.

He has thought hard about how live music works – and reinvented it. Out go the drum riser, the mike-stands, all the clutter of the concert hall. Out, too, goes the video screen. 

In come straps and harnesses, so the musicians can stay on their feet. The effect is so infectious that the fans soon follow suit. There are two specialist dancers, but all 12 performers are in near-perpetual motion. 

Like the Dutchmen of the Seventies devising total football, Byrne and his choreographer Annie-B Parson have taken something rigid and replaced it with a thrilling fluidity 

Like the Dutchmen of the Seventies devising total football, Byrne and his choreographer Annie-B Parson have taken something rigid and replaced it with a thrilling fluidity 

Like the Dutchmen of the Seventies devising total football, Byrne and his choreographer Annie-B Parson have taken something rigid and replaced it with a thrilling fluidity.

Instead of one person playing several drums, there are six people with one drum each. Instead of a set, there’s a big blank space, with walls made of silver strings, hung vertically, to allow entrances from all directions. 

Everybody wears a grey suit, to concentrate the mind on the music and the movement.

The show opens with him sitting alone at a desk, holding a brain, like Hamlet with a twist of self-mockery. And it's a triumph - everywhere you look, there is vitality, lightness and wit

The show opens with him sitting alone at a desk, holding a brain, like Hamlet with a twist of self-mockery. And it’s a triumph – everywhere you look, there is vitality, lightness and wit

For I Zimbra, the drummers form a circle, like the figures in La Danse by Matisse. For Slippery People, the ensemble go halfway from the haka to the hokey-cokey. 

For Once In A Lifetime, Byrne declaims the verses like a demented preacher, prompting the crowd to pile in on ‘And you may ask yourself, how did I get here?’ For Blind, there are giant shadows – who needs video when you’ve got Plato’s Cave?

Everywhere you look, there is vitality, lightness and wit. 

IT’S A FACT 

Byrne, the archetypal figurehead of New York’s punk scene, was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, to a Catholic father and Presbyterian mother.

The set list is rigorously selective, with seven songs from American Utopia, Byrne’s latest and highest-charting solo album; eight by Talking Heads (mostly from Remain In Light and Speaking In Tongues); three from Byrne’s countless collaborations (including Lazy, his only smash); and, to finish, Janelle Monae’s Hell You Talmbout, a musical memorial for black Americans killed by the police. 

The whole thing makes you think, dance, smile and feel more hopeful.

I haven’t seen a better gig since 2002, when David Bowie played Low in full at the Festival Hall. 

That evening was just sublime in itself; this one could be a game-changer, as designers work out what they can do without all that stuff on the stage.

 

ALSO WORTH SEEING     

Elvis Costello & The Imposters

Blenheim Palace                                                                             On tour until Jul 6 

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Greeted by a radiant sunset, Elvis Costello located his old fire at Blenheim Palace

Greeted by a radiant sunset, Elvis Costello located his old fire at Blenheim Palace

The stately homes of England make strange bedfellows with rock stars, but this bill hit the spot by juxtaposing three old masters. 

Nick Lowe brought his charm, before Mike Scott’s Waterboys added some swagger.

You’d have got long odds against Elvis Costello playing a palace when he was a post-punk firebrand, but he clearly couldn’t resist the temptation to murmur ‘just a word in Mr Churchill’s ear’ at Sir Winston’s birthplace.

Greeted by a radiant sunset, Costello located his old fire, tearing into Radio Radio and Pump It Up before reinventing Alison as acoustic soul and Accidents Will Happen as a torch song. 

The only disappointment was that he didn’t gaze at Capability Brown’s gardens and sing Watching The Perspectives.

 

Hollywood Vampires                                                            SSE Hydro, Glasgow

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It might be the only way Johnny Depp can get a hit these days: playing in a grizzled rock supergroup with Alice Cooper and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. He could do worse. 

Hollywood Vampires are little more than a glorified bar band sprinkled with stardust, but they do their somewhat superannuated stuff with undeniable style – and sufficient volume to raise the dead.

It might be the only way Johnny Depp can get a hit these days: playing in a grizzled rock supergroup with Alice Cooper (above with Depp) and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. He could do worse

It might be the only way Johnny Depp can get a hit these days: playing in a grizzled rock supergroup with Alice Cooper (above with Depp) and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. He could do worse

Taking its cue from the Vampires’ own track My Dead Drunk Friends, the show is framed as an irreverent memorial to rock’s doomed and damned. 

Though spotted with originals and old faves (Cooper’s I’m Eighteen and School’s Out; Aerosmith’s Combination), the set-list is primarily an act of veneration, paying tribute to The Doors, The Who, AC/DC, Motörhead, Jimi Hendrix et al, as images of the dearly departed flash up on video screens.

Cooper leads from the front, a cartoon bogey-man sporting a top hat and cane, excelling on The Doors’ Five To One, struggling with the sky-scraping highs of Baba O’Riley. Perry is louche, distant and cool. 

And Depp? For an actor, he makes a capable third guitarist, running through the full repertoire of rock-star poses beneath a highly dubious haircut. When he gets his spotlight moment on David Bowie’s Heroes, he delivers a more than passable imitation. A rare case of do give up the day job, perhaps?

Graeme Thomson

 

THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES

By Adam Woods

Gorillaz                                   The Now Now                                                         Out Fri

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Damon Albarn has a habit of coughing out low-key Gorillaz albums in between the big-production kind, and just as 2011’s The Fall followed 2010’s Plastic Beach, so The Now Now follows last year’s Humanz. If that record was heavy on the star guests and the apocalyptic hip hop and a bit light on Albarn and his melodic touch, The Now Now switches the balance, focusing on agreeably bleary, shimmering electro-pop full of Damon’s spaced-out croon, with titles - Idaho, Hollywood, Kansas, Lake Zurich - that suggest a dazed, ruminative tour travelogue

Damon Albarn has a habit of coughing out low-key Gorillaz albums in between the big-production kind, and just as 2011’s The Fall followed 2010’s Plastic Beach, so The Now Now follows last year’s Humanz. If that record was heavy on the star guests and the apocalyptic hip hop and a bit light on Albarn and his melodic touch, The Now Now switches the balance, focusing on agreeably bleary, shimmering electro-pop full of Damon’s spaced-out croon, with titles – Idaho, Hollywood, Kansas, Lake Zurich – that suggest a dazed, ruminative tour travelogue

 

The Carters                    Everything is Love                                               Out Now                                                                                                  (streaming and download)

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With their joint stadium tour ongoing, here comes Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s surprise collaborative album, released under their married name. Hip hop-driven and underpinned with soul samples, Everything Is Love certainly has its moments, from the oddly downbeat party-starter Apes**t to the triumphant Black Effect and happy-families closer Lovehappy

With their joint stadium tour ongoing, here comes Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s surprise collaborative album, released under their married name. Hip hop-driven and underpinned with soul samples, Everything Is Love certainly has its moments, from the oddly downbeat party-starter Apes**t to the triumphant Black Effect and happy-families closer Lovehappy

 

Jim James                          Uniform Distortion                                                 Out Fri

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Jim James, of Kentucky cosmic rockers My Morning Jacket, has had a tendency to veer off into psychedelic soul on his solo efforts, but Uniform Distortion stays closer to home territory with fun, fuzzed-up rock ’n‘ roll. The screaming guitars of Just A Fool might be the White Stripes, but No Secrets comes close enough to Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac to have Stevie Nicks wondering if she wrote it

Jim James, of Kentucky cosmic rockers My Morning Jacket, has had a tendency to veer off into psychedelic soul on his solo efforts, but Uniform Distortion stays closer to home territory with fun, fuzzed-up rock ’n‘ roll. The screaming guitars of Just A Fool might be the White Stripes, but No Secrets comes close enough to Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac to have Stevie Nicks wondering if she wrote it

 

Ray Davies                       Our Country – American Act II                        Out Fri 

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The uncharitable view of The Kinks’ Ray Davies is: genius in the Sixties, bit ho-hum since. But last year’s Americana was his strongest work in ages, exploring his relationship with American music backed by sterling country-rockers the Jayhawks. Our Country is the swift follow-up, with another hatful of solidly enjoyable songs and an ethereal version of one of the great forgotten Kinks songs, Oklahoma USA

The uncharitable view of The Kinks’ Ray Davies is: genius in the Sixties, bit ho-hum since. But last year’s Americana was his strongest work in ages, exploring his relationship with American music backed by sterling country-rockers the Jayhawks. Our Country is the swift follow-up, with another hatful of solidly enjoyable songs and an ethereal version of one of the great forgotten Kinks songs, Oklahoma USA



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