Live: David Byrne Brings Future Funk to Vermont
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With outfits matching his shock of white hair, David Byrne—our current Icon Issue honoree—brought the same oddball dance and music troupe we saw a couple months ago at Radio City to a remote hillside in Northern Vermont on Monday to play a highly-choreographed set, mostly culled from his frequent collaborations with Brian Eno. It was a family-friendly funk show, with an adoring crowd politely eschewing the weirdly-enacted “No Dancing in Front of the Stage” law to groove in what might be the most picturesque concert setting outside of Red Rocks or the Gorge (even the Port-o-Lets tucked behind a stand of pine were pretty). Byrne worked through a mix of Talking Heads hits (”Crosseyed and Painless,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Take Me to the River,” “Life During Wartime”) and Byrne-Eno gems (”Help Me Somebody” from the seminal My Life in the Bush of Ghosts) with a nervy confidence and strut that threatened to melt all the free Ben & Jerry’s being doled out from a truck parked at the top of the hill. The adoration was mutual—Byrne wound up playing three encores despite the mountain air dropping from almost comfortable to “I should’ve worn pants” levels.
Download the current Icon Issue, check out our interactive slideshow of David Byrne’s insane office narrated, just for you, by the Luaka Bopster himself, and by all means check out Byrne’s Band of Merry Dancers on his current tour, coming to a hillside near you. Setlist after the jump and more photos over on The Tripwire.
Freeload: The FADER Issue 61 Podcast
- story THE FADER
Every release of an Icon issue is a special occasion, but this year is a little extra special because we’ve dedicated it to someone who’s still around: man about town and former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. We switched up the format and spoke to Byrne himself, as well as profiling five artists we think are carrying on his legacy, namely Grizzly Bear, Michael Bell-Smith, Theophilus London, Micachu & The Shapes and the Dutty Artz crew. There are also life maps, old photos, essays and weirdness. And as always, we’ve got a bunch of great bands in our Gen F section and a million other interesting things throughout, including a globetrotting fashion photo story of cyclists around the world (That one’s for you, Byrne!). We’ve put together a mix of music from the issue, presented by Bacardi B-Live, that includes jams from Byrne, Salem, Joker, Pterodactyl, Grizzly Bear, Erup, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Theophilus London, Nipsey Hussle and more. Download it below and pick up a copy of the issue now at the newsstand of your choosing. When the paper wears out, come back to FADER.com for a free download of our issue PDF in two weeks.
Download the FADER 61 mix as an mp3 (right click, save as)
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Check the tracklist after jump.
