Manafonistas

„So endet die Welt also: Nicht mit einem Knall, sondern mit einem Wimmern. Es gibt Ereignisse, die so apokalyptisch sind, dass man meint, dass sie nicht einfach passieren werden. Man denkt, sie werden durch ein Donnergrollen angekündigt, durch Eulen, die Falken fangen, durch Pferde, die sich selbst essen. Zumindest sollte da ein bisschen Wut sein, ein vereitelter Versuch, während die Energie schwindet. Und doch ist Deutschland ohne den Hauch des Widerstands erstmals in 80 Jahren in der Vorrunde ausgeschieden. Es gab keinen Sturm, es gab keinen Drang.“

(The Guardian)

American Utopia is not the fantastic album I had hoped it would be (even though Eno had some influence on it, and even though I find it mostly entertaining and enjoyable), but as I was way too young to go to rock concerts when the Talking Heads existed as a band, I decided to see David Byrne’s current, and highly praised, world tour stopping in Berlin, less than ten minutes from where I live.

It is impressive to see how contemporary these songs, which were written and recorded 35 to 40 years ago (I Zimbra, The Great Curve, Born under Punches, Slippery People etc.), sound more contemporary today than songs by many bands of the last 20/25 years – even though they are being performed very true to their original Talking Heads versions – though with very different, and mostly much younger [younger than me], musicians, like guitarist Angie Snow and bassist Bobby Wooten and lots of percussionists.

The new songs sound better in their live versions than they do on the album, in particular Doing the Right Thing, which they turned into a heavy rock number with metal-like guitar sections, and also the weird opening song I Dance Like This with its funny noisy sections. Still, most of the more recent Byrne songs come across a lot more conventional than the old Talking Heads hits, which the audience greeted and danced to enthusiastically. They must have appeared experimental and out-of-this-world in 1979/1980, but they still sound more modern than rather nice pop tunes like Every Day is a Miracle, Bullet and Like Humans Do. Even Blind from Talking Heads‘ final album (1988) sounded more energized (and energizing).

Excellent show with a minimal stage design and 12 musicians moving across the whole stage for the duration of the performance. If one wasn’t able to experience the Talking Heads live (apart from the remastered Stop Making Sense re-release in movie theaters some years ago), these performances of Remain In Light and Fear of Music songs must be as close as one can get in the 21st century. Looking forward to the live recording.