A Real Post About Antony. Really.
Okay so I procrastinated and I’ve listened to really quite a bit of music since then (it’s not my fault! I’m addicted!) so obviously the whole thing isn’t as clear in my mind, and I’m sorry about that. On the other hand, it does mean that (hopefully) I’ll keep it brief and this won’t turn into a massive ramble, spilling on for miles, like the majority of my posts seem to. In any case if I’d written it straight after I’d probably have been whining about feelings and if I’d written it in the past few days I’d have whined about illness so really this is for the best. Or I’m lazy.
ok i will write a real post tomorrow
antony is amazing and his voice is magical and i needed that
also he is so fucking adorable he’s nearly as cuddle-worthy as theo.
Everything that happens will happen today.
I have seen David Byrne play live twice. The first time, I was about eight or nine, and it was not long before Grown Backwards was released. He sang Au Fond du Temple Saint, amongst other things, and I got a bootleg CD from one of the other audience members for being little, cute and enthusiastic. Last night, at the Sage, I was one of quite a few teenagers – although all of us appeared to have arrived with our parents. I think he just has that sort of appeal.
The show I was at most recently was a retrospective of his work with Brian Eno, who, needless to say, is a Legendary Producer, and produced three of Talking Heads’ albums – Remain in Light, More Songs about Buildings and Food, and Fear of Music. All of these albums are good. He also collaborated with Byrne on two albums – 1981′s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which was hugely influential for being one of the first major uses of sampling and being brilliant, and 2008′s Everything that Happens Will Happen Today. A little of my views on that one later. Back to the show.
Byrne and his troupe – one drumkit, one set of African drums; three soul singers; a synth/keyboardist; a bassist/singer; and three dancers – were all dressed entirely in white, at first making me think of nurses, then cricketers, then just that it was the best way to make them stand out. His hair, as white as his clothing, sticks up in a sort of cockatiel quiff that seemed perfectly suited to him as he made his awkward introduction to us. He was witty and likeable, didn’t talk for too long and managed to appear nervous, despite surely having done this sort of thing thousands of times: exactly the picture of him that has made him the poster boy for geeky kids everywhere.
He opened with Strange Overtones (which is without a doubt the strongest track from Everything that Happens…), a beautiful, warm, rendition of a beautiful, warm song. Byrne and his band are all insanely talented musicians, and it helps that the Sage is a venue designed to make musicians sound as good as possible, whatever sort of music they may be playing. Okay, I haven’t seen a crust punk show advertised there, but the acoustics are fine-tuned specially before each performance, and it pays off.
Heaven seemed to fill the air in the hall; the bass vibrations managed that horribly cliche-sounding feeling that they are actually shaking your heart. But it still sounded like Heaven, from the Talking Heads album Fear of Music. The most exciting parts of the performance, for me (though sadly few in number) were the songs from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I always think of My Life… as a distant, somewhat unsettling album, to be listened to through headphones on winter nights. It’s also quite definitely an electronic music album, but the only aspect of that genre visible on the stage was the synth. Brian Eno is a producer who can transform musicians – so how would the songs sound deproduced? Heart-stopping. For Help Me Somebody, Byrne bellowed the samples (taken from a radio preacher) himself while the backing musicians provided a fantastic funk-disco soundtrack for the words. This performance was not for curling up on a winter night, it was for getting up and dancing.
Sadly, no-one actually did until the ending of Crosseyed and Painless, where a few audience members couldn’t stay seated, and were requested to sit again. This was followed by what was probably my favourite performance of the night, Once in a Lifetime. I remember that when he sang it all those years ago, he put on silly voices and such for the “same as it ever was” parts. Here, there was nothing but sincerity, and a smooth, constant flow to the song, a real feeling of “letting the water hold me down”. For this, about half the audience rose, and it was followed with Life During Wartime, for which just about everyone did. The performance probably got this reaction because it was closer to the Stop Making Sense rendition than the original on Fear of Music. It is one of the best songs to dance to.
In the end, brilliantly, three encores were gotten out of the concert. Along with Heaven, Take Me to the River was the moment when the feeling that the music filled every single space in the hall; Air was one of the other songs that underwent a massive funk transformation; the performers returned for Burning Down the House with added tutu for no apparent reason other than that it was awesome, and kept them on to close with Everything that Happpens.
Now, Everything that Happens. I have to say that after hearing such a stripped-down rendition of it, the album version was a little… disappointing. (I only picked up my copy of Everything that Happens Will Happen Today at the concert) Actually, not so much Everything that Happens, now that I listen to it again. One Fine Day was the one that, live, was just beautiful, raw and clean. The recorded version sounds… it sounds produced. It feels really odd suggesting that Brian Eno could actually detract from the quality of a recording, especially when I think of Brian Eno + David Byrne as a combination that works like peanut butter + chocolate or such. (As you may not be familiar with my eating habits, I view this combination as a great thing.) I certainly wouldn’t suggest that the live Help Me Somebody was superior to the My Life… version, because it obviously wouldn’t have been as exciting without the contrast, and because My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is probably in my top 100 albums of all time. Bear in mind that I listen to a lot of music, so that’s pretty high-ranking.
But, I don’t know about Everything that Happens Will Happen Today. Having downloaded Strange Overtones from the album site, and having been blown away by it, with One Fine Day and Everything That Happens being so great live… I was hoping for something more. It’s not a bad album, of course, but Brian Eno and David Byrne’s names together make me instantly think “Innovation! Invention! Breaking the boundaries of contemporary music!”
This album doesn’t seem to be doing that. It seems to be David Byrne and Brian Eno, just doing their thing. Considering the energy and excitement that was in the air in Hall One last night, it would be profoundly depressing to think that they’ve decided they’re now too old to invent; I would rather think of it as two old friends getting together, and enjoying themselves doing what they do best.
Same as it ever was.
