Byrne leaves crowd shouting for more

DAVID BYRNE, Red Butte Garden Amphitheater, June 21

David Byrne, the man who made the "big suit" famous and reeled off a string of hits in the '80s with art-rock band, Talking Heads, brought his singular brand of eclectic sounds to the Red Butte Garden Amphitheater Sunday for a sold-out show.

Byrne featured songs from his latest studio album, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" but mixed up his set with a potpourri of work he's done with long time collaborator, British producer Brian Eno.

Byrne took the stage as the last rays of the sun disappeared on a blustery Summer Solstice evening. Backed by a four-piece band, three background singers and three dancers-the opening electro-soul tune "Strange Overtones" brought the crowd to its feet — where the fans would remain for the almost two-hour performance.

Early in the set, Byrne strapped on an acoustic guitar for the mellow and haunting "One Fine Day," a song he wrote inspired by the Dave Eggers novel, "What Is the What."

The main character in the story escapes war-torn Darfur, Sudan, and makes his way to Atlanta, where we tries to put his life back together. Byrne captures the spirit of the tale in a song that is harrowing but communicates triumph.

In a piece he wrote for Byrne's Web site about the new record, Eno said the songs were inspired by his "long love affair" with gospel music— a sentiment obvious throughout "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," for which he wrote all the music.

While the capacity audience responded well to the new tunes, it was gems from Byrne's musical archives that brought the loudest cheers and loosest hips. The first bars of "Once in a Lifetime" off the 1980 Talking Heads album, "Remain in the Light," brought a roar of approval from the crowd. So did "Life During Wartime" another Heads hit from the 1979 "Fear Of Music" album that includes the near-iconic lyric, "this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around." Though released in '79, it was the bands concert film, "Stop Making Sense," that put the song on the pop charts in 1983.

Byrne opened his encore set with another early Heads hit (and Al Green cover) "Take Me to the River" and concluded the evening, appropriately, with the audience shouting for more.

While Byrne parted ways with Talking Heads in 1991, he's been a prolific artist, producing both solo and collaborative work, including scoring the second season of HBO's "Big Love," and later releasing a CD of the work called "Big Love: Hymnal."

E-mail: araymond@desnews.com