David Byrne at the Hammersmith Apollo

An Evening With David Byrne

Hammersmith Apollo, 4 March 2026

I saw him live with St. Vincent many years back but I finally got to see the legendary David Byrne headline his own show and it was quite honestly, one of the most unique, visually arresting, joyful and fun nights I've had in a long in time, filled with so many great songs, from new solo tunes to lots of classic Talking Heads hits.

Apparently these are Byrne's first UK dates since 2018, and that was at the soulless O2 Arena, so I was excited to see him in a relatively small venue, the place where I had witnessed Neil Young play the best shows I've ever seen back in 2008 no less. Annoyingly though, Willow Avalon, who I've been dying to see live announced a show on the exact same date (and Madison Cunningham was also playing the same night too), which dampened my enthusiasm a little as I felt so gutted to be missing her. But after seeing David Byrne live I am really glad I didn't miss this fantastic show and hopefully I will get to see Avalon (and Cunningham) in the future. Avalon is only 27 afterall and Byrne is 74 so there may not be as many opportunities in the future to see him, although judging from this show he is in absolutely superb shape!

When I arrived in the venue (it was nice for once knowing I had a seat I must say), it already looked otherwordly, with huge screens surrounding the stage showing a moonscape and absolutely no instruments laid out on the stage. Just before things got started, Byrne himself made an announcement over the speakers welcoming us and urging us not to take videos or too many photos (I tried!) and to try and be in the moment. He also said that the management was happy for us to dance, except in the aisles because it was a fire safety concern. Given that people, especially older audience members understandably, can get annoyed at people standing and dancing during seated shows I did wonder how that would go down but I must say by the end of the concert pretty much everyone was standing and moving, that's the kind of energy the show had.

It was onto this moonscape that Byrne and his band (who were all carrying their wireless instruments meaning they could move and dance around the stage throughout) emerged, wearing matching orange suits that made them look like a cross between prisoners and X-Wing fighter pilots (apparently they were all wearing blue the night before), and began playing a hymn-like droning version of the Talking Heads song Heaven: the Earth slowly emerging behind them. It just looked so dramatic and so damn cool. "There she is, our heaven," Bryne said at the end, his arm extended towards the huge Earth behind him. "The only one we've got."

A whole bunch of other matching musicians and dancers then ran onto the stage one by one, with one giving Byrne an acoustic guitar, and as he strummed and sang Everybody Laughs, one of the highlights from his new album Who Is The Sky?, they surrounded him dancing and singing along, as visuals of people on various different streets filled the screens. It was this fantastic mix of a live band and a theatrical performance, in the best way possible and just really matched the energy and feel of Byrne's music.

For the next song, the Talking Heads classic And She Was, there was lots of cool choreography  with Byrne energetically taking part in the moves while singing and playing guitar, it was pretty incredible. The screens behind showed scenes filmed while flying over houses, trees and landscapes, making it feel like Byrne and his gang were dancing through the air!

The party vibe continued as the screens changed to New York City buildings and Byrne shuffled around the stage singing Strange Overtones, the dancers jumping around behind him. It almost reminded me of that Lionel Richie video for All Night Long, but in the most Byrne-esque way of course!

I was actually pleasantly surprised at how many Talking Heads songs there were during the set. I was quite content to hear songs from his solo back catalogue and his new album is really great too so I was looking forward to hearing tracks from it but there's no doubt how thrilling it was to hear classics like Houses In Motion (this upbeat track had particularly good choreography from the talented dancers), the joyfully rhythmic (Nothing But) Flowers (lots of the musicians with mobile drums on this one), the lovely This Must Be The Place (with the stage suddenly looking like they were in the middle of a forest), Byrne getting his moves on while singing Slippery People to a backdrop of waves and, to my delight as it's my favourite Talking Heads album, Air from Fear Of Music. 

There was of course solo tunes too, in particular four from the new album, and I think my favourite was probably the performance of My Apartment Is My Friend, which Byrne performed to a backdrop of his real apartment in New York, telling us how much he came to appreciate his home during the pandemic. I must say, despite him saying that it may not compare to the apartments in Hammersmith, I thought it looked particularly nice and I would so love to have a rummage through the book shelves and records I could see on display!

The first David Byrne CD I ever owned was the 2001 album Look Into The Eyeball, so it was also a treat to hear the song Like Humans Do from it, which Byrne prefaced with a little speech about how "sometimes we sing to complete strangers, like I'm doing now" and told how in Italy during the pandemic people would open their windows and come out onto their terraces to sing to their neighbours. "They did this especially on the day they call Liberation Day, that's the day they celebrate their freedom from fascism." 

It was interesting as there were quite a few political statements throughout, which thankfully drew cheers rather than derision, with messages supporting gay people ("Make America Gay Again") and against Trump and the like ("No Kings") while later images of ICE officers attacking protesters played on the screens during Life During Lifetime. If nothing else it's comforting to know Byrne is a decent human, on the right side of history. 

He later says that he saw an interview with John Cameron Mitchell, who offered that love and kindness is the most punk rock kind of resistance these days, something he pondered on a long time before realising he's right. I would hope that was the case but if nothing else this whole show radiated positivity and love and a kind of pure joy that literally had everyone up out of their seats, dancing, singing and smiling, and that can't be a bad thing.

At the end we really got the full blast of Talking Heads classics and not surprisingly the energy went up a level when Byrne and the gang gave us Psycho Killer (I mean who could not sing along to this one! It was so, so much fun!), the aforementioned Life During Wartime and the joyous Once In A Lifetime, Byrne going full evangelist, wandering the stage as he delivered every lyric to the crowd.The encore had a more spiritual moment, when the whole gang gathered around a single lightbulb in a circle, with Byrne in the middle, and sang his tribute to togetherness, Everybody's Coming To My House, which felt very appropriate tonight. Then Byrne was back with his guitar before things went full on crazy for the closing number, Burning Down The House, where it felt like the whole audience was rocking to the booming voice of Byrne, for a fantastically raucous ending to the show. 

What an absolute delight this show was, skillfully mixing live music, arresting visuals and amazing choreography: it was pure art and a brilliant reminder at what an incredible artist David Byrne is. I'm so glad I went!