Stop Making Sense at the Electric Ballroom

This was my second gig of the day, having seen an afternoon stand up performance from the ever excellent Simon Evans. According to my ticket doors opened at the Electric Ballroom at six which was before my Simon Evans gig finished (owing to a medical emergency). However venue website said seven pm and that was more in line with what I thought. The latter was right.

A woman in front of me in the queue tried to elicit stage times from the doorman and reported back to her husband that the doorman said opening act was on at seven which she "knew" couldn't be right as the queue wouldn't have even got past the door by then. But he was right, because the opening act wasn't really an act at all. It was just a DJ. Who was duly playing even before the first of us got settled in.

After an hour and a half of him, his desk was carried off stage and he was promptly replaced by the lead singer of Slippery People, a Talking Heads tribute act. They were here to perform the whole of the album Stop Making Sense. They were not just recreating an album, but a concert movie, originally put out in 1984, and which I recall seeing at university in an arts cinema. It was terrific then and terrific to see it live on stage now.

I have said this about tribute acts in the past, but I will say it again about this one. They are better than the real thing. The lead singer had a better voice than David Byrne, the backing group were better. The whole 10 piece ensemble were amazing. A night to remember for the crowd of very mixed ages.

As in the concert movie, the "David Byrne" comes out just with his acoustic guitar and sings Psycho Killer solo. 

Then you get one of the "backing singers" and the bassist arriving to play Heaven with the rest of the band in the wings to arrive for the point where they are all required. I put backing singers in inverted commas as they really are not mere members of the supporting cast. The two chunky young ladies who sing alongside the lead vocalist have amazingly good voices (as they displayed when taking the lead later for a couple of tracks) and they are super entertaining with their dance routines. They were perfect. The whole thing sounded and looked perfect. Honestly a complete joy start to finish. 

It's a brilliant album of very original and varied songs, like Burning Down the House, Girlfriend is Better, Take Me to the River, Once in a Lifetime. Genius. And when I say this lot were better than the original, I mean more entertaining performers with a better sound. Of course the genius is not in performance but in coming up with the songs, which is where one must tip one's hat to David Byrne and the original Talking Heads.