In the pre-PC era, I typed a high school term paper for a classmate. The payment? A copy of the live double album The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads. Since their 1978 cover of “Take Me to the River,” the band had slipped into airwaves saturated with what’s now classic rock. “Once in a Lifetime” followed, then a revived “Psycho Killer.”
Talking Heads always stood apart—rhythmic complexity, avant-garde instincts, semi-academic lyrics, and a tone warmer than the math underneath the music. You knew a Talking Heads track the second it hit your ears.
Fast-forward to 2018, when David Byrne toured American Utopia and stopped at Atlanta’s Shaky Knees festival for a one-hour set, becoming the highlight of the weekend for many. Byrne reintroduced himself with music both familiar and new while ditching the normal trappings of live performance. No fog. No lasers. No pyrotechnics. Instead, his troupe of singers, dancers, and musicians shuffled freely across the stage—sometimes alone, sometimes in lines, sometimes in a tightly choreographed performance. That set eventually made it to Broadway, where Spike Lee captured it on film.
Now, more than 40 years after that manual typewriter moment, Byrne’s two-night appearance at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre had been circled on the calendar since it was announced months ago. Byrne is touring his 2025 release Who is the Sky? and, to the audience’s benefit, with his open-stage reimagination of performance.
The show opens simply: Byrne playing acoustic guitar on Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” shortly joined as members of Ghost Train Orchestra, who also appear on the new album, arrive with violin, percussion, and xylophone. Soon, the full 12-member ensemble fills the stage for a lively new song, “Everybody Laughs.”
The staging becomes its own character: a digital semi-circular backdrop, a floor embedded with lighting features, and an understated complement of ceiling lights. Together they allow the show’s tone and color to morph from song to song, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically.
At 73, Byrne remains in fine voice and enviable physical shape. The choreography emphasizes form and flow more than literal interpretation, with the troupe leaning into a kind of playful precision. Their movements feel meticulously rehearsed yet alive, the sort of performance you suspect would reveal new details on repeat viewing. Another film, perhaps?
Byrne is a master of setting up the theme or origin of his songs, often with great humor. Byrne didn’t shy away from socio-political commentary, primarily by imagery or messages on the backscreen such as “No Kings,” but the most impactful was the imagery of ICE arrests during “Life During Wartime,” which transitioned to photos of fascist confrontations around the world. Probably the most poignant comment was a quote from John Cameron Mitchell, “love and kindness are the most punk things that you can do right now.”
Predictably—and wonderfully—the old favorites earned the loudest reactions. Byrne played ten Talking Heads songs (setlist below), including a slick, spy-film-style video effect leading into “Psycho Killer.” Byrne’s legacy is long cemented, but this tour reinforces that longevity doesn’t require retreat. Atlanta didn’t see a nostalgia act in 2025; it saw one of the best performances of the year.
Setlist:
Encore:
