David Byrne @ Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA

Originally published in Soundcheck Magazine (9/22/08)

David Byrne at Lehigh University (Zoellner Arts Center); Sept. 16
By Andy Pareti

There’s a new star of Bethlehem, and he ain’t little. Riding the wake of his reunion with producer/musician Brian Eno, David Byrne and his jittery white brigade opened their fall tour in Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center on Tuesday, September 16.
Sporting an ivory outfit to match his now electric-white hair, Byrne led his group through the musical history he and Eno shared, from their late ‘70s Talking Heads ventures to the 1981 slice of ambience My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to their latest collaboration, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
That latter title rings eerily prophetic for Tuesday’s performance, which sparkled with world-fusion rhythms, echoing gospel and, of course, some low-down, dirty dance grooves.
All of this was illuminated by Byrne’s constant visual dynamics. The combination of Zoellner’s cozy amphitheater with the jagged, exaggerated movements of Byrne’s backup dancers (who clearly graduated from Byrne’s school of the cocaine dance) made the set look a bit like some super high-budget talent show with, well, much better talent. Especially the more atmospheric, Eno-led pieces, like “I Feel My Stuff”, had all the charm of college performance art without any of the pretension.
The set was heavy on Everything That Happens material, which is unfortunate since much of the crowd didn’t seem to connect strongly with that album’s particular excellence. “Life is Long” was enhanced somewhat by the oddball addition of computer chairs on stage that resulted in what could only be described as a collective couch potato dance; “Strange Overtones” radiated warm, fuzzy feelings; and the group closed out a second and final encore with Everything That Happens’ title track - not the most obvious finale, but one that worked well nonetheless.
While Byrne’s latest material remained somewhat underappreciated (at least relatively-speaking), the audience was brought to their feet when the lineup ripped through some fabulous classic Heads cuts, particularly the one-two punch of “Once in a Lifetime” and “Life During Wartime”. The best interpretation of a classic, though, was clearly the first encore, “Take Me to the River”. Byrne’s backup singers, particularly the Aretha-inspired Kaïssa, shot a surge of gospel through the song’s pacing structure that made it bleed the soul of Al Green’s original more than the reinterpretation that appears on More Songs About Buildings and Food.
And at the center of this tense Molotov cocktail was Byrne, who continues even today to shudder around the stage with his spastic cockatoo dance like it’s still 1983 and Jonathan Demme’s behind the camera. Music seems to physically affect Byrne in the most curious of ways. When he sings, it’s like his very pores tighten with anticipation for the next note. That’s the kind of love that never goes away. And on a cool Tuesday night in Bethlehem, we all loved him back for it.