When it comes to surprising collaborations new wave
polymath David Byrne has previous form. Just take his hook up with Fatboy Slim
on the Imelda Marcos musical Here Lies Love. Seriously...it happened. Google
it. So joining forces with ex Polyphonic Spree disciple turned quirky solo
artist in her own right St Vincent shouldn’t really have come as much of a
shock. Listen carefully and you might even pick up some shared lyrical and
vocal traits too, it really doesn’t take much imagination to hear Byrne coming
up with St Vincent’s 2009 track Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood for instance.
It’s 30 years since Talking Heads’ big commercial
breakthrough courtesy of Speaking In Tongues (coincidently St Vincent - aka
Annie Clark - was making a bit of a breakthrough of her own around the same time...being
born), but despite being over twice her age Byrne (61 years young) looks
impressively spritely and fresh up on stage tonight, almost as if the whole
collaboration’s breathed new life into him.
After 15 minutes of ambient rainforest sounds (which
send a fair few of the predominantly middle aged audience scurrying off to the
loo) he and St Vincent come on stage accompanied by an 8 piece brass band. With
Byrne’s silver grey locks and St Vincent’s dyed blonde hair they make a cute
couple (there’s nothing ‘going on’ as far as I know but clearly there’s a lot
of affection and mutual admiration between the pair), kicking off the set with Who,
the curiously catchy first single from their album together Love This Giant. An
oddball mix of funk and vaguely Middle Eastern sounding vocal breaks from St
Vincent it’s a fine example of Byrne’s ability to come up with something that’s
undeniably arty and yet winningly...er...charty (see also pretty much all of
Talking Heads’ singles) all at the same time. Like pretty much every track that
followed it featured some simple but effective choreography too. Byrne’s always
jigged around a bit onstage, perfecting an oddly cool looking form of dad
dancing that few white men can pull off. St Vincent’s a nifty mover too,
employing a slightly scary tottering backwards and forwards motion that makes
her look like a doll on a travellator. Add to this a plain backdrop with some
stark but effective lighting casting giant shadows and the show’s got plenty
for the eyes as well as the ears to revel in.
Let’s get one thing straight, tonight isn’t the
David Byrne show. The set’s a perfectly balanced mix of his solo stuff, Talking
Heads numbers, his collaboration with St Vincent and her own (new to most of
the audience I’m guessing) material. In fact Byrne often seems to shun the
limelight, happy to act as St Vincent’s backing dancer on her tracks, just adding
the odd distinctive vocal embellishment here and there. It’s a generous move in
some ways but St Vincent deserves the respect.
From the domestic angst ridden anthem
Save Me From What I Want through to the more visceral Marrow, transformed this
evening into a bombastic brassathon (so much more powerful than its original
synth based version), she’s a revelation. Surrounded by the band lying
prostrate on the floor she came across as both vulnerable and powerful (something
she does particularly well...like a kitten with a Kalashnikov) at the same time
on another of her solo numbers, Cheerleader. That’s a neat trick if you can
pull it off. She’s a pretty impressive guitarist too, seemingly as comfortably laying
down some fret melting funk as she is playing the gentler, more intricate
stuff.
Whilst St Vincent may be new to most Byrne’s output
is hard wired into the brains of anyone with ears. Wild Wild Life, Lazy (which sounds
particularly good in its brassed up form and gives each member of the 8 piece
band the chance to sing a line...bless ‘em), Burning Down The House and show closer
Road To Nowhere predictably all (double cliché alert) go down a storm (that’s cliché
number one...tick) with St Vincent’s voice the proverbial cherry on the cake
(boom...two clichés in one sentence...I’m on fire today).
Despite these obvious crowd pleasers the Love This Giant tracks more than held
their own though, with the vocal harmonies of I Am An Ape, the naggingly catchy
chorus of Weekend In Dust (damn that’s some funky shit) and the oddball melting
pot of Who in particular all lodging themselves firmly in your brain and refusing to leave. What
strikes you most is that they really do seem to bring the best out of each
other, 1 + 1 = 3 as it were, add the brass (an odd concept on paper perhaps but it just
works so well) and it’s a grin inducingly irresistible combination. On more than one
occasion St Vincent seemingly can’t believe she’s up there and, towards the end
of the show, she mused about how her 5 year old self (the first time she can
remember hearing Byrne’s music) would have reacted to finding herself on stage
with possibly her first and perhaps most significant musical hero. She wasn't the only one who counted herself lucky to be there, as the standing ovation at the end of the main set ably demonstrated.
Where do they go from here? Will this be one of
Byrne’s ‘roads to nowhere’ one offs or is this the start of something really
special? Who the hell knows, on previous form I’m guessing it’ll sadly be the former though
which makes these shows even more unmissable. Love This Giant? You betcha.
Setlist: Who/Weekend in the Dust/Save Me From What I
Want/ Strange Overtones/I Am An Ape/Marrow/This Must Be The Place/The Forest
Awakes/Ice Age/Lightning/Wild Wild Life/Cheerleader/Lazy/I Should Watch
TV/Northern Lights/The One Who Broke Your Heart/Outside Of Space and Time
Encore 1: Cruel/Burning Down The House
