Review: David Byrne at the Count Basie Theatre

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime" (1979)

From the promise by theater employees that the evening's show would run an hour and 50 minutes with no intermission to the warning that the performance would begin at 8 p.m. with no opening act, it was clear that the crowd which had come to Red Bank's Count Basie Theatre to see former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne Monday night (Nov. 3) was in store for something closer to a night of theater than a rock concert. 

That's not to say the evening didn't rock, because at times it certainly did, such as during Byrne's fiery guitar solo in "Help Me Somebody" which earned him a mid-song standing ovation and runs through Talking Heads hits including 1980's "Once in a Lifetime" that caused the audience to loose their minds in excitement. 

However, while rocking Byrne and company presented the Red Bank audience with an intricately planned song-cycle which highlighted the singer's numerous collaborations with producer Brian Eno using a top-notch band, several singers and a trio of backup interpretive dancers. 

Yes, I said it, interpretive dancers. While that may seem on the surface to be an idea that is either silly or pretentious, the dancers were used on about half the songs and always to great effect. One of the reasons that part of the performance worked is that Byrne, while playing his wireless guitar, would often be in-step with the dancers. 

The choreography, mixed with the simple but powerful lighting design and the fact that everyone on stage was dressed head to toe in white, lead to moments which were so good they became overwhelming, such as on the second song of the evening, "I Zimbra," the opening track from the Talking Heads' 1979 Eno-produced album, "Fear of Music." 

While Byrne, currently on the road with the "Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour," wasn't afraid to revisit his work with the seminal New York band he co-founded decades ago (and even escaped from the Byrne and Eno theme to treat the audience to a show-stopping run through 1983's "Burning Down the House") the cornerstone of the night was "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," Byrne and Eno's latest album which was recently released online. "In a few weeks it will be a CD in the physical world where some of us live," Byrne told the audience. 

Byrne's performance was also one of the first shows to be held at the historic theater since its $8 million four-month-long renovation, and the improvements were not lost on the singer, who filmed his 1994 concert documentary "Between the Teeth" at the theater. After leading his band on stage, Byrne told the audience, "It's been a while since I've been here. ... Some of the toilets flush now."

Here's Monday night's set list:

1. "Strange Overtones"
2. "I Zimbra"
3. "One Fine Day"
4. "Help Me Somebody"
5. "Houses in Motion"
6. "My Big Nurse"
7. "My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)"
8. "Heaven"
9. "Never Thought"
10. "The River"
11. "Cross-Eyed and Painless"
12. "Life is Long"
13. "Once in a Lifetime"
14. "Life During Wartime"
15. "I Feel My Stuff" 

First Encore:
16. "Take Me to the River"
17. "The Great Curve" 

Second Encore:
18. "Air"
19. "Burning Down the House" 

Third Encore:
20. "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today"