Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew have been touring Remain In Light in Europe- they played Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Cologne, three dates in the Netherlands and then Brussels, Warsaw and Luxembourg and last week arrived in the UK with gigs in Manchester and Wolverhampton and then London. Harrison was a Talking Head, guitar and keys/ synths, and Belew played guitar on Remain In Light in 1980 and then as part of the touring band (documented on the second disc of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads and an incredible film of the band playing live in Rome in 1980).
The band that took to the stage at The Ritz last Thursday night is a dozen people strong, Harrison and Belew centre stage accompanied by two female singers, a man right in front of us who sings a lot of the David Byrne parts (and not afraid to bring his own take to some very well known songs) and plays a huge saxophone, several keys/ synth players, another guitarist, a drummer, a percussionist and a bassist. Most of them are also the support band, Cool Cool Cool, and they do a superb job of re- animating those Talking Heads songs. They have the necessary funkiness and can do the New York edge too. I've seen David Byrne perform many of these songs before- Harrison and Belew do them just as well but without the performance art that Byrne always brings to his shows (and I loved his American Utopia tour).
The set isn't just Remain In Light. They dip into other parts of the Talking Heads back catalogue and beyond, kicking off with Psycho Killer (a crowd pleasing place to start) and hit us with four Remain In Light highpoints- the jerky, uptight but loose art- funk of Crosseyed And Painless, Harrison and Belew trading guitar licks, followed by House In Motion and a brilliantly slightly manic but very much on the button I Zimbra. From this they roll into Born Under Punches, the sax/ singer in front of us screaming the vocal lines, 'Take a look at these hands/ The hand speaks/ The hand of a government man'. The band are dancing around, the 76 year old Jerry Harrison is doing that thing where he closes his eyes and rocks back on his heals, his long curly locks framing a very contended smile.
Cities from Fear Of Music follows and then Harrison plays Rev It Up from his 1987 solo album Casual Gods (I have Rev It Up on 12" and I'd be surprised if its been out of the sleeve since 1988). Slippery People sounds huge, Jerry's synth and keys solo a particular joy. Adrian Belew takes the spotlight for a King Crimson cover (Thela Hun Ginjeet according to SetlistFM- I'll have to take their word for it, a man's got to got o the toilet and the bar at some point) and then they launch into Once In A Lifetime, a refreshingly off kilter take on the song- the part three quarters of the way through where Harrison hits some huge synth chords is grin inducing. By this point we're right at the front. Everyone's dancing. There are a lot of younger people in the crowd as well as the usual middle aged audience and the feeling (I hesitate to use the word vibe but probably should) in The Ritz is amazing, evryone really enjoying hearing these songs so close up played by people having the time of their lies. A one point the two singers, the keys players and the sax/ singing man do a choreographed turning on the spot dance, a nod maybe to Stop Making Sense- it's a wonderful moment.
More? They play Life During Wartime, easily one of Talking Heads' best songs, Byrne's endlessly quoteable lyrics reeling by as the band cook up a storm- 'We dress like students/ We dress like housewives/ Or in a suit and a tie/ I changed my hairstyle so many times now/ I don't know what I look like....'- and then they close with Take Me To The River.
The encore is just two songs, the first Drugs (from Fear Of Music), a woozy, fractured, distorted song, and then they dive into The Great Curve, maybe the most dancey, most poly- rythmic, most Remain In Light of the Remain In Light songs, Belew providing the squeals of guitar and bursts of electricity, as the band bring the futuristic sound of 1980 into now. When it ends the players line up across the front of the stage for the ovation and it's clear that Jerry Harrison (plus Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) as well as additional players like Belew, brought a huge amount to these songs, both in the studio and live- Jerry Harrison is unflashy and un- rock starry, New York cool and an innovative guitar and keys player- and as the house lights come on its all smiles on the floor of The Ritz.
The Great Curve
Sounds as great as the Wolverhampton gig a couple of days after. Was it full? The Wolves one was about 2/3 full which was a shame.
ReplyDeleteThe Ritz wasn't full, I'd guess maybe 3/4 if the tickets were sold. Full enough but with space to move.
ReplyDeleteSwiss Adam