David Byrne & St. Vincent at the Roundhouse

 

David Byrne & St. Vincent

Roundhouse, 27 August 2013  

Just before David Byrne and St. Vincent's first show in the UK together begins, the strange sound of birds chirping which has been playing over the speakers in place of music, is suddenly interrupted by the friendly voice of the Talking Heads legend. Recording and photos are welcome, he tells us, but asks us not to block the views of our fellow concert goers or watch the show, which they have spent so long on, through a device. It's bizarre to hear the disembodied voice of the person we are here to see talking to us ten minutes before the concert starts but is an early indication that this is a brilliantly unique gig (and Byrne request is so nicely said that the audience largely complies).

Love This Giant, the collaboration between Byrne and Annie Clark (otherwise known as St. Vincent), is a great album that successfully combines their styles but it in no way prepared me for just how enjoyable and entertaining their show together would be. Byrne isn't kidding when he says they put a lot of work into the presentation as visually its as fun to watch as it is to hear. For starters, as on the record, they are backed with a huge brass band who don't just stand in the background playing but are a huge part of the show, whether its doing dance moves with Byrne, circling the stage in a conga line to the music, rhythmically weaving in and out of the singers and even lying on the floor, it's like there's a little carnival going on on-stage rather than a band playing quirky rock music. 

Clark at one point calls Byrne "the archangel of absurdity" and he certainly looks the part with his white hair and outfit, while Clark is all rock chicked out in a leather mini dress and newly bleached blonde hair. I wasn't thrilled when I first saw photos of Clark's new peroxide do but on stage it actually looks extremely glamorous and kind of matches Byrne's white locks. They certainly look finely tuned to each other, whether its the matching hair, or Byrne's famously awkward dancing and Clark's little robotic moves, they almost seem like characters from an old fairy tale. There's a particularly fantastic moment during the St. Vincent song Northern Lights when the pair team up to use their moves to make a theremin wail.

Together with their brass bandmate mates they take us through pretty much all of Love This Giant, beginning the show with the standout single Who and running through Byrne's quirky I Should Watch TV (about the first television he bought with his first Talking Heads cheque) to the first song Clark and he wrote together, the lovely The Forest Awakes, featuring Annie moving like a jewellery box ballerina. The live brass and their energy on stage as they move around gives every song an extra oomph while the older tracks are reinvented bathed in brass.

The St. Vincent songs sound fantastic with this new brass sound, in particular the brilliant Cheerleader from her last album Strange Mercy and an incredibly ethereal and moving performance of The Party which had the band members slowly waltzing around the stage to incredible effect. And then there was Byrne's songs, many completely iconic, which all sounded tailor made for the brass treatment. This ranged from more recent tracks like Strange Overtones from his album with Brian Eno and his big dance hit with X-Press 2, Lazy, which became like a joyous celebration with driving brass. Elsewhere there was a wonderful This Must Be The Place (complete with little choreographed dance from Byrne), a really rocking Burning Down The House and, best of all, an utterly infectious Wild, Wild Life, which saw members of the brass band dancing around the microphone and each singing a line. It completely brought down the house and was the absolute highlight of the show, well, that is until the second encore and they took us down the Road To Nowhere, like the coolest ever marching band ever.

I've seen St. Vincent a few times before and she certainly didn't disappoint or pale in comparison to the utter brilliance of her legendary collaborator but this was the first time I've ever seen Byrne live and it was a truly wonderful, life affirming experience with so many songs (including four Talking Heads tracks!) I've known and loved for so long. Annie's songs sounded superb in this setting, Byrne's lived up to all expectations and more and the chemistry between them both on their own and the songs they wrote together was absolutely magical. Without doubt one of the best shows I've seen this year.