It isn’t often when one enters a venue for a live show and there’s literally no equipment onstage prior to showtime. With the curtain open revealing a large video screen only, I wondered what the sold-out audience of 5000 was in for as David Byrne took the stage at Arizona Financial Theatre on Tuesday April 21st.
Hitting the stage at 8:05 p.m. sharp with no opening act, Byrne commenced his 105-minute, 21 songs set with a Talking Heads song called “Heaven” (from 1979’s Fear Of Music). It featured four of his 12-piece ensemble before the remainder of the hybrid of musicians and dancers took the stage.
Early on, Byrne wasted no time with getting to the now with “Everybody Laughs” from his 2025 album Who Is The Sky? It’s fair to say that the majority of the audience knew that Byrne’s objective was to please both his fans and himself. He seemed to find that all-important happy medium Tuesday night.
For the first two songs, everybody sat down. But that didn’t last when Byrne led the band into “And She Was” from 1985’s Little Creatures. For the most part, the Talking Heads material was faithful to the original recordings, albeit with more emphasis on the rhythmic elements due to the drumline on stage.
In fact, the entire ensemble’s performance was more reminiscent of watching a marching band on a football field during halftime than a concert. Particularly with all the choreography incorporated throughout the night. That being said, it did mesh together pretty well all told.
“Houses In Motion” stood out for the harmony vocals alone. But for quirkiness, I suppose a new “single only” release called “T-Shirt” (co-written with Brian Eno) took the honors. There were simple (if not-so-subtle) messages displayed on the video screen such as “Remove the bars that keep us apart” to “No Kings” (with a Burger King-like logo included) to “Make America Gay Again” to “Well behaved women seldom make history”.
In other words, this is Byrne’s way of presenting social commentary onstage without the need to add anything else. It worked like a charm. Now that I think about it, it’s too bad that active rock radio isn’t playing “T-Shirt” in at least “light” rotation.
Simply put, it’s classic Byrne— lyrically and melodically–with contemporary, modern sounding production. At least to my ears anyway, for whatever that’s worth.
It’s important to note how reflective Byrne was regarding life during the pandemic. It was an interesting change of pace to hear a musician really delve into that (roughly) two-year period of no music or no contact with anyone. Specifically with regards to living in New York City, where images of his actual home were shown.
That led into another new song from Who Is The Sky? called “My Apartment Is My Friend”. It would be the fifth and final new song of the night.
With the exception of one recent song, “Everybody’s Coming To My House” (from 2018’s American Utopia) as the first encore, the remainder of the main set and the show’s finale was nothing but Talking Heads.
On that note, Byrne and company delivered “Air” before taking things back to the Heads’ 1977 self-titled debut album for “Psycho Killer”. But the showstopper was arguably “Life During Wartime”, a song that was a little ahead of its time in retrospect. I guess you could call it both timely and timeless. Particularly effective was the footage of recent ICE protests that flashed on the screens around the final minute of the song. The audience went into a frenzy, as you can probably imagine.
The main set concluded with “Once In A Lifetime”…with everyone out of their seats and dancing to the infectious beat. They saved the biggest hit of their career, “Burning Down The House”, for last. Predictable, but understandable.
However, what was clearly obvious was the programmed drums accompanying the song– needlessly to my thinking– when Byrne had a real drumline onstage! For the record, yes, I’m a drummer myself. Therefore, it wasn’t hard to notice that there were drum fills that weren’t being played by the drumline. Just saying.
To conclude, I can never overstate how significant it is for established artists to continue releasing new music. At 73 years young, it’s clear that Byrne still has a lot to say creatively. Also, the fact that he pretty much split solo material and Talking Heads songs down the middle for the current tour is something that most artists of his generation rarely do.
Maybe that’s the ultimate appeal of Byrne. Being stuck in nostalgia mode is not an option for him. Simultaneously, he doesn’t forget where he came from either. Kudos to Mr. Byrne for that, and for continuing to push musical boundaries in 2026— and clearly enjoying it.
The final verdict? 3.5 out of five stars. A solid night of music all around.
David Byrne set list:
Heaven
Everybody Laughs
And She Was
Strange Overtones
Houses In Motion
T-Shirt
(Nothing But) Flowers
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
What Is The Reason For It?
Like Humans Do
When We Are Singing
Independence Day
Slippery People
Moisturizing Thing
My Apartment Is My Friend
Air
Psycho Killer
Life During Wartime
Once In A Lifetime
Encore:
Everybody’s Coming To My House
Burning Down The House
