This is an incredible show which is very illustrative of the the “eras” bands go through.
Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense area great band, but they are utter professionals. They are having a great time, and they backed by a unique stage show that ads to the experience, but they are polished and utterly professional. They have done this many times before.
But the band in this performance from 1980 at the Capitol is still hungry, even though they were already very established by this point. They are rawer, but more importantly, they are weirder. So many of the songs are radically different from the originals so that you really have to know the songs to recognize them. And Belew (of King Crimson fame) is there doing his bizarre thing on top of everything, just making everything so much odder. (Seeing the Belew era of the Heads would have been an all-time highlight for me had I been alive.) Hell, the entire supporting cast is awesome – they were already performing with large backing band at this time: three guitarists, two keyboardists, two bassists, two drummers, backing singer….
Just an incredibly awesome show. On the short list of best I’ve ever seen.
Watch it:
- Psycho Killer
- Warning Sign
- Stay Hungry
- Cities
- I Zimbra
- Drugs
- Once in a Lifetime
- Animals
- Houses in Motion
- Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
- Crosseyed and Painless
- Life During Wartime
- Encore: Take Me to the River (Al Green cover)
- Encore 2: The Great Curve
- David Byrne: lead vocals, guitar,
- Chris Frantz: drums,
- Tina Weymouth: bass guitar,
- Jerry Harrison: keyboards, guitar,
With
- Future King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew,
- Former Parliament-Funkadelic keyboards Bernie Worrell
- Busta Cherry Jones: bass
- Steve Scales: percussion
- Dollette McDonald: vocals