Show Review

David Byrne doesn’t exactly need to be touring anymore. After all, he’s a rock and roll hall of famer, who in the words of Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the Talking Head’s hall of fame induction ceremony, invented an "orchestrated funk," simply never heard before. Yet hopping back on the tour wagon isn’t exactly hard work if you’re still in prime creative and physical shape. Like another fellow fifty-something rocker name David – David Bowie – this David is aging quite gracefully.

Borrowing the term eclectic to describe a David Byrne performance is perhaps cliché, but how else do you describe a performance that molds rock, opera, classical, funk, Latin and jazz into one focused performance? Just leave the labels at home.

The now gray haired Byrne, on tour in support of his latest solo release – Grown Backwards –energetically transformed center stage into his personal workout mat. Wearing a hip industrial flavored jumpsuit, aside from his silver coiffeur, didn’t look a day older than his onstage peers. Byrne tip-toed, danced, boogied, smiled and swayed with the vigor of a youngster. With help from his solid backing band and string section, the audience at the Flynn Theater eagerly pushed Byrne to live up to his legendary creative persona.

Featuring Mauro Refosco on percussion, Graham Hawthorne on drums and Paul Frazier on bass, the backing trio transformed Byrne’s multi-textural creations into vibrant color. Although Hawthorne’s drumming was a bit over the top for some of the more subtle originals, "too much cowbell" was ironically relevant in the early moments. Further augmented by the six piece Tosca Strings; the Austin sextet helped revitalize old Talking Heads classics, while intelligently presenting Byrne’s more elaborate themes.

Early in the set at the splashy Flynn Theater, a young woman asked from one of the front rows for Byrne’s permission to dance. Almost blushing with embarrassment, Byrne responded undoubtedly, "yes, you may miss," as if reminding himself that this is the man who penned the lyrics in Remain In Light - "the world moves on a woman’s hips." Following suit, the rest of the audience soon moved to the aisles and front to dance as the band kicked into "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)."

Although all of the songs weren’t hot to trot – Byrne captured the audience’s imagination with a generous song selection from his new Grown Backwards and 2001’s rhythmic Look Into The Eyeball which included: "U.B. Jesus," "Like Humans Do," and "Oesconocido Soy." It was during the opera aria ""Un di felice, etera" that Byrne’s voice hit his most daring high notes of the night, that had many of the dancing crowd members staring in awe.

New songs and solo material alike, Byrne knew like any established artist, people want to hear the early hit material. Treating the crowd to Talking Heads back catalog numbers like the afro-dub fusion number "I Zimbra" to the paranoia funk rocker "Once In A Lifetime, Byrne mixed many classic radio nuggets with his more eclectic offerings. The performance also revisited classics: "Road To Nowhere," "Life During Wartime," "Heaven," "Blind" and ‘Psycho Killer." Dancing like a newborn out of the crib, Byrne moved with innocent abandon, proving he still gets off on his own music history. Something quite charming, as many of today’s artists are prone to mature past their early era material. As the boisterous crowd continued to stand and dance in approval, David Byrne’s performance proved that some things just never grow tired.