David Byrne To Embark On First Solo Tour Since 2009
Via JamBase
Written by Scott Bernstein
This March, legendary performer David Byrne will do something he hasn’t done since 2009: he will embark on a solo tour. Byrne, who fronted Hall Of Fame act Talking Heads from the group’s formation through their 1991 breakup, is also expected to release a new album to accompany the March 2018 tour.
While Byrne did hit the road in 2012 – 2013, he did so with Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent. This time around there are no co-stars. David Byrne is expected to perform Talking Heads hits such as “Burning Down the House,” “Life During Wartime” and “Psycho Killer” as well as music from a new album due in March as per the Poughkeepsie Journal. No additional details of his album or backing band for the tour have been revealed yet, but are expected to be confirmed soon. Byrne issued a note about the short run that can be read below.
As for now, six U.S. shows have been confirmed. First up is a performance at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey on March 3. Byrne then brings the tour to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Hershey, Pennsylvania; Waterbury, Connecticut and Kingston, New York. David Byrne also will make appearances at the Lollapalooza festivals in South America and at Roskilde, so don’t be surprised to see him make the rounds on the festival circuit in 2018.
Tickets go on sale Friday morning.
Read a note from David Byrne via Brooklyn Vegan:
Some months ago I went to Clair Bothers in Manheim, PA to test out tech for some new live shows. I had an idea that everyone in the band might be mobile… so there would be no risers, drum platform or any of that stuff. I’d experienced a taste of this on the tour I did with St. Vincent, where all the brass players were mobile.
With everyone mobile, I realized the stage could be completely clear. If we could have the monitors in our ears, the amps off-stage and the lights up high, then we had the possibility of a completely empty space.
The problem was that there are always a lot of people and gear around the periphery of a music show—amps, monitor mixers, stage hands looking bored, road cases, etc., which would be completely distracting—how to hide that stuff? A curtain or drape obviously, but as I might be doing outdoor venues then there arose the issue of wind and drapes or curtains. A relatively light wind can play havoc with cloth, and if you try and anchor it, you end up having made yourself a very large sail—big enough to pull down the entire rig.
In Vegas and some other places, lightweight chains have been used instead of curtains… so we looked at a sample. It seemed promising, so we tested it at scale, to see if it took light (it seemed possible that the light might go right through) and to make sure it didn’t interfere with the wireless transmissions—or the whole mobile idea would be impossible.
It worked. It takes color beautifully.
Not only does it take color, one can cast shadows on the chain.
The band and I will be testing all of this in front of a live audience during a small number of shows in the beginning of March. We’ll be doing some new songs… and many others that will, I assume, be familiar. I’m excited. This is the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense, so fingers crossed.
