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This Groove Is Not Out of Fashion

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"This groove is out of fashion," David Byrne sang during his first song Tuesday night at the State Theatre. Then he spent the next two hours disproving it.

On his current Songs Of David Byrne And Brian Eno Tour, Byrne is promoting their newest collaboration, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, along with highlights from their past musical excursions and explorations.

"Groove" always defined Byrne's relationship with Eno. After his groundbreaking work with Roxy Music, David Bowie and his own ambient recordings, Eno began producing the Talking Heads in 1978.

Starting with More Songs About Buildings And Food, he introduced into the Talking Heads' music African rhythms and synthesized atmosphere that seemingly heightened Byrne's paranoia and offbeat observations.

Culminating with 1980's Remain In Light and 1981's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, their relationship produced adventurous, forward-looking music.

Byrne and Eno ended their collaborations when, as Byrne has previously stated, Eno's contributions began to make the band's identity his own. Regardless, their past partnership remains relevant today. Indeed "Ghosts," as Byrne observed during the show, remains an early example of sampling.

Byrne and Eno rejoined 2-3 years ago. Eno began working on the album's music eight years ago, but didn't produce new songs. When he later encountered Byrne he offered him the music for his next album. Thus the new release arose from this chance encounter, 27 years after their last release together.


Their new material, while lacking their previous innovation, still proved equally satisfying. The show's opener "Strange Overtones," set the pace and tone, combining a mellow R ‘n' B beat with Eno's subtle sonic additions. Byrne recently said Eno is not afraid to do simple things. The new songs, with sing-along melodies, acoustic guitars, country flavors and minimalist beats, manifested this.

Byrne and his white-clad five-piece group plus three background singers then kicked into a higher gear with "I Zimbra." The band, including Mark Degli Antony on keyboards, Paul Frazier on bass, Graham Hawthorne on drums and percussionist Mauro Rofosco, more than rose to the music's melodic and rhythmic challenges.

At this point he introduced three dancers who accompanied most songs throughout the evening. Choreographed by the legendary Twyla Tharp, their dances featured exaggerated everyday motions. While the dancers did not add to the music and, at points, cluttered the stage, the band and crowd fed off their energy, and they responded in kind.

Byrne spent the rest of the evening's set moving between present and past material. Natural highlights included "Cross-eyed And Painless," "The Great Curve," "Once In A Lifetime," "Houses In Motion," "Heaven" and "Life During Wartime." Byrne is the rare artist who can make the listener both think and dance, and these songs remain eerily relevant today.

Byrne closed the concert with one non-Eno composition, "Burning Down The House," which nonetheless fit the evening's vibe, and his new album's title song. While the words may tell us to live for today, the music, like their partnership from thirty years ago, makes us look ahead.

1 Reader Comments

Jill Yablonski03:39pm
Oct 16
This was a fantastic show. The way his older pieces fit in with the newer ones was seamless.

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