Nov. 9, 1978 review: Talking Heads at the Spectrum

 


A hot night I would happily go back and relive.

Nov. 9, 1978

Byrne, Talking Heads Infuse

Old Tunes with New Sizzle

         Talking Heads, the most courteous and clever of the new bands that germinated in CBGB’s in New York City, gave some 700 bobbing, cheering fans a high-intensity musical message Wednesday night.

         They engulfed their setting – the Spectrum, a sweltering former supermarket at Elmwood Avenue and Amherst Street – with droning rhythm guitars, an energizing beat and the capricious, croaking tenor of singer, songwriter and guitarist David Byrne.

         Lean, short-haired Byrne was a compelling presence. He stood deadpan, drenched in sweat, straining occasionally on his tiptoes as he sang, rocking back on his heels to pick off some rapid-fire single-note counterpoint.

         As a singer and stage figure, Byrne took the excruciating internal restraint of Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry and turned it into a smoldering madness. As guitarist, he made atonal conspiracy with keyboardist-guitarist Jerry Harrison.

         Harrison said earlier that Byrne sought to accentuate abrupt changes, rather than soften them. What underlined them was the band’s forceful attack, the guitars riding on the insistent push of Martina Weymouth’s bass and husband Chris Frantz’s crisp, bare-bones drumming.

         The band has grown considerably since the Buffalo State College appearance in October 1977. The precise rhythms and rolling drones signaled the influence of David Bowie’s discrete music sidekick, Brian Eno, who produced Talking Heads’ second album, “More Songs About Buildings and Food.”

         This softened the jagged gait of old songs like “Love Goes to a Building on Fire” and strengthened the impact of others, like “Psycho Killer,” the last number before their encore.

         It was a double farewell – their current single of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” and the bizarre romance of “Thank You for Sending Me an Angel.” The fans kept cheering until the records on the sound system drowned them out.

         Opening were the Jumpers, a Buffalo quintet that worked up almost as heavy a head of steam as Talking Heads.

         Starting a bit slowly, they steadily gathered momentum and turned in what regular followers said was their best recent performance.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Talking Heads in Boston's Berklee Performance Center on Nov. 4, 1978. Photo by Barbara Alper.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Talking Heads were red hot and rapidly evolving at this moment, three months after that second album was released. Setlist.fm account of the Buffalo date is incomplete and not in order. What they played three nights later at Oberlin College was probably pretty close to what they did here:

The Big Country

Warning Sign

The Book I Read

Stay Hungry

Artists Only

The Girls Want to Be with the Girls

The Good Thing

Who Is It?

With Our Love

Love Goes to a Building on Fire

Drugs

Found a Job

Psycho Killer

(encores)

Take Me to the River

I'm Not in Love

Thank You for Sending Me an Angel

 

 

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