What if I were to tell you that you can go see a full concert today without having to wait months in advance or be forced to give up an arm or a leg for a ticket? Now, you may ask yourself, “is there a catch to this?” Yes, it’s a slight one, as the concert you’d be going to already happened forty years ago.
How is this possible? Well, recently A24 Studios digitally remastered and re-released the film “Stop Making Sense,” back into theaters featuring and put together by the popular new wave band, Talking Heads. This concert film was initially recorded all the way back in 1983, and despite its age, it delivers on an experience that makes it feel like it all happened only yesterday.
First, to give a little background, Talking Heads was first formed back in 1975 by David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums) and Tina Weymouth (bass), all of whom met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. Not too long after that, they found themselves mixed in with NYC’s expanding punk scene, frequently performing at the now legendary CBGB club alongside other acts such as Television, Blondie, Patti Smith and the Ramones.
Eventually, they recruited their fourth member, Jerry Harrison (guitar, keyboard), in 1977 before releasing their first album later that same year. From there, the band took off, turning out several critically acclaimed albums, featuring such iconic songs as “Psycho Killer”, “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burnin’ Down the House.”Their popularity reached its apex by 1983, after the release of their fifth and most commercially successful album yet “Speaking in Tongues”, which is where we find them at the start of “Stop Making Sense”.
While the idea of a concert film wasn’t anything new at the time, as more well recognized bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin had done their own in the previous decade, the Head’s presentation and style is what makes this experience so memorable.
It all starts off with Byrne walking on stage by himself, holding only an acoustic guitar and a boombox to perform the first song of the night. In the next song, he is then joined by Weymouth on bass, then Frantz slides in on drums and Harrison joins in on his guitar before eventually switching to keyboard.
As the concert progresses, more people join in on various different instruments, making what would otherwise have been a pretty straightforward show into something that can excite the audience and make them more interested in what would happen next. Even when they run out of instruments to add, Byrne ups the ante with his odd mannerisms and choreographed dance moves, which include him intentionally tripping over himself, messing around with a lamp and running laps around the stage during an instrumental break. Finally, lest we not forget, Byrne’s iconic Big Suit, something which words cannot do justice to, it is something that you’ll have to bask in the glory of with your own eyes, and that is all that I can say.
Now to get down to the music itself, which features some of the best songs selected from the band’s first five albums. From the angsty punk-like moods of their first two albums (“Talking Heads: 77” & “More Songs About Buildings and Food”), to the disco infused panicky beats of their third album (“Fear of Music”), worldbeat groves of their fourth (“Remain in Light”) and the danceworthy funk found on their fifth (“Speaking in Tongues”), this concert manages to tie together all of these different sounds with ease. To anyone who is not familiar with Talking Heads, this can serve as the perfect jumping-on point as it shows the band at its absolute best, delivering a performance that packs a punch and leaves you craving for more as soon as it ends.
As for the band itself, things began to fall apart in the aftermath of “Stop Making Sense”, as they stopped touring completely and their musical output would become considerably weaker as the 80’s drew to a close. In 1991, Byrne announced that the band had broken up, despite the fact that his bandmates had no involvement in this decision. They only reunited on small occasions, like their induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and recently with the re-release of “Stop Making Sense” just this year.Regardless of what happened between the members of the band, Talking Heads is considered to be one of the greatest acts in musical history, with their albums considered to be some of the greatest of all time.
Along with that, “Stop Making Sense” is considered to be one of, if not the greatest concert film of all time, and over the years it has amassed more and more fans that will pass on this performance and the music of Talking Heads to many others as the years go by. Overall, I’d give this film 10 Big Suit Byrnes out of ten, an amazing and infectiously exciting experience that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen you can get to. Go watch the film or listen to the soundtrack and see what you think!
/10