Show review: David Byrne and St. Vincent at the Orpheum Theatre – 9/23
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and St. Vincent mastermind Annie Clark recently teamed up for a record as well as a tour. They made their way to Boston’s Orpheum on Sunday night.
Love This Giant was not the album anyone expected from the Byrne/Clark collaboration. The renowned master of New Wave art rock and the reigning queen of baroque shred-pop entered the studio together and emerged with an album of hooks and horns. It’s a collaboration which bears few immediate similarities to the most famous work of either of its contributors, opting for a brassy sound in which the typical rock instrumentation is deemphasized. It’s a risky decision for sure, and one which doesn’t pay off 100 percent of the time on the record. The live show, however, is a different story.
Byrne and Clark have pulled out all the stops for this one. They’re joined on stage by a drummer, a keyboardist and a full eight-piece brass section. The sizable band brings out the full grandeur of the new songs in ways which the recordings sometimes fail to. Ten of Love This Giant‘s twelve tracks were played, and all of its brightest moments received their due diligence. The funky opening couplet of “Who” and “Weekend in the Dust” kicked things off on a high note, while Clark’s playful “The Forest Awakes” and Byrne’s wistful “Outside of Space and Time” were highlights elsewhere. The impressive brass section filled out the songs with a lively energy beyond the album arrangements, and was put to good use on other songs as well.
Tracks from both the Byrne and Clark back catalogs were sprinkled throughout the set. “Marrow,” “Cruel” and a rendition of “Northern Lights,” featuring the uncommon sight of a joint theremin solo, were among the St. Vincent selections. Clark’s virtuosic guitar shredding is largely reined in on the new album, but she got plenty of opportunities to flex those muscles on her solo songs. The aggro tendencies hinted at with last year’s Record Store Day seven-inch and Clark’s sometimes scary-intense stage presence at St. Vincent shows were mostly absent though. The vibe of this evening was much more on the friendly side.
Byrne took the spotlight for cuts from his solo career as well as the occasional rapturously received Talking Heads song. The audience was politely engaged for most of the show, but absolutely lit up for “This Must Be the Place” and “Burning Down the House.” Byrne is clearly disinterested in leaning heavily on his most well-known songs, but it was a blast to hear him play even a few of them. The brass flourishes and Clark’s lovely backup vocals only sweetened the deal. Inclusions of “Like Humans Do” and the Brian Eno collaboration “Strange Overtones” proved that Byrne’s post-Heads songwriting lost none of his witty, off-kilter potency.
The evening’s most striking element may have been the way in which all of this coalesced into more of a truly orchestrated performance than a by-the-numbers concert. Love This Giant‘s whimsical atmosphere carried over into a stage show with many a theatrical element. Byrne’s signature kooky dance moves were out in full force, and the surprisingly mobile brass players joined he and Clark in coordinated dances and marches across the stage. Half of the group, Byrne included, even laid down and played dead for the duration of a sparser song. A bit bizarre, surely, but it all somehow made sense in the show’s idiosyncratic logic. Whether their collaborative efforts entice you or not, there’s no denying that Byrne and Clark have put together an entertaining show for this tour. Well worth your time as a fan of either musician’s work.
