Concert reviews: David Byrne and Conor Oberst
By Dan Nailen
06/22/09 - 12:56 AM
Critic types, particularly of the pop music variety, tend to shy away from calling a concert the "best" they've ever seen, or a performer the "greatest" they've seen on stage.
You can count me among those trying to avoid hyperbole, but it's hard when it comes to describing the sold-out David Byrne show at Red Butte Garden Sunday. The man simply knows how to put together an amazing show, something that blends both challenging art and the hits long-time fans crave, and he delivered what I believe will be the best show at Red Butte this summer. He certainly set the bar high for those who follow him onto that stage.
Like his Eccles Center show in Park City last fall, Byrne arrived accompanied by three back-up singers, a three-person dance troupe and a svelte band of two percussionists, a keyboard player and a bassist. Rarely did the folks on stage simply stay in those roles, though; Byrne insists on using every one of his white-clad companions in a variety of roles, and it makes his concert as much a visual feast as an aural pleasure.
His shock of wiry gray hair as distinct as his old jet-black coiffure, Byrne led the proceedings from the center stage, but often joined the dance routines going on around him, and also dropped to the rear of the stage on occasion to let one of his fellow musicians shine in the spotlight for a moment.
Having such an incredible catalog of music to choose from—including decades of Talking Heads and solo material—probably helps Byrne's creativity in creating the stage show, and Sunday's gig was full of old Talking Heads faves and a heavy dose of tracks from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, his 2008 collaboration with long-time sonic foil Brian Eno.
He launched the show with one of those new tracks, the ear candy of "Strange Overtones," and followed immediately with the energetic "I Zimbra" from the Talking Heads years. Starting the show with such a winning, upbeat one-two punch helped Byrne reward the fans who gaving him a standing ovation simply for taking the stage at 8:40, and they remained on their feet for nearly two hours and multiple encores, even when he played more experimental material like "I Feel My Stuff" that's not quite so easily digested as his poppy "One Fine Day" or older favorites that popped up later in the set like "Take Me to the River," "Life During Wartime" or "Burning Down the House," which Byrne and crew performed in tutus for some unexplained reason.
Among the other strong performances during Byrne's show were Talking Heads' tunes "Heaven," "Crosseyed and Painless," "Once in a Lifetime" and "Houses in Motion," as well as the title track from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today that closed the show.
Byrne's Sunday night show managed to elude the thunderstorm warnings for most of northern Utah, ending up with starry skies abetting the performer's own light show. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band were not quite so lucky Saturday night at their Library Square show.
Oberst and Co. were on hand to play the Utah Arts Festival's annual Summer Solstice concert, and one of our unusually common (this year) monsoons whipped through town Saturday night and forced the two openers to play abbreviated sets in hopes of getting Oberst's show in once the weather broke.
Happily, the rain had stopped by the time Oberst and his band took the stage for maybe 1,000 fans, and while Oberst's performance paled in comparison to the multi-sensory experience of Byrne's gig, it did nothing to dispel the idea that Oberst is a young singer/songwriter to watch.
Oberst came to indie-fame through his work as Bright Eyes, but his latest project is a roots-rock affair in his own name, aided by a band of friends he traveled to Mexico with to record.
Songs from those sessions were captured on the self-titled Conor Oberst album, released last summer, and the new Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band set that arrived last month. Saturday's show featred several strong takes on Oberst's latest material, including "Slowly (Oh So Slowly)," "Spoiled" and "Air Mattress" from the new set, and "Moab" and "Cape Canaveral" from last year's release.
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