Moth Club, Hackney
“Right on cue.”
In celebration of “Scotland’s 2nd greatest poet”, East London's underbelly transformed into an exuberant hub, brimming with talent invited from the wider corners of the U.K for a one-off recital.
For one night only, Byrne’s fan club congregated at Hackney's beloved Moth Club, clad in oversized blazers and neatly-nicked haircuts, enacting a revolving door for a litany of underground acts to come and perform. Transcending through the ages, an evening was set to re-experience some of the biggest art-rock hits from the 70’s and 80’s in our current, modern age.
As though stumbling upon the very genesis of David Byrne’s infamous group, Talking Heads, their inaugural breakout hit, ‘Psycho Killer’, imminently incited the group’s distinctly quirky metrics on 70’s art-rock. Bolstered by the protrusion of trumpets and harmonicas from the rotating members on-stage tonight, ‘Thank You For’ springs into life before digressing toward the upbeat forces seizing 1979’s ‘Life During Wartime’ - complete with crass choreography from the enlisted cast, wilfully co-participated by the loosened, zealous audience.
For what came next, however, showed this to be a mere simmering. Before long, the crowd were sucker-punched by a litany of entrancing hits across the following decade of Talking Heads’ tenure. Inflected brilliantly by Famous’ frontman, Jack Merrett, ‘Born Under Punches’ effortlessly encapsulates Byrne's unhinged on-stage aura, whilst ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ pours a continual stream of fuel onto the burgeoning fire ignited this evening; courtesy to, undoubtedly, one of art-rock’s most pertinent records, Remain in Light.
Aligned with the recently-remastered Talking Heads docufilm, Stop Making Sense, 1983’s LP, Speaking in Tongues, invariably takes centre-stage tonight. Rattling through a seemingly endless list of hits, from ‘Making Flippy Floppy’, to ‘Burning Down the House’, and ‘Girlfriend is Better’, such tracks remain comparably less ground-breaking to their preceding counterparts in their indicative period of the group’s most accessible and commercially-successful LP. In spite of this, the chosen musicians before us brilliantly showcase the very best of Talking Heads' unique dynamism: Tina Weymouth’s pertinent basslines, Byrne’s desperate vocal delivery and lyricism; bolstered by the wider group’s larger-than-life plethora of percussion and polyrhythms.
At long last, a rare respite consumes Hackney's sweat-filled crucible by virtue of such slower-burning, slow-dance tracks as ‘Heaven’ and ‘Road to Nowhere’, the latter extending to a band-rallying cry embraced by the throng of Byrne aficionados. Sans surprise, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ incites this evening’s conclusion: an indelible hit jousted by Byrne’s renowned lyrical refrains and the colourfully-painted, energetic backdrop remastered. As the entirety of tonight’s casting cramp together on-stage, it seemed the perfect closure to an evening of 40 years prior to art-rock’s monolithic force and seismic poet in tandem.
For this evening felt like no other, receding from crass throwbacks and 'tribute act' reenactments, proceedings throughout were cued to perfection through myriad interchanges; at the helm of those disguised in oversized suits, mullets and a youthful exuberance, ultimately bounding us toward finer days ahead.
9/10
A24 Music is set to release a Talking Heads tribute album, Stop Making Sense, the first track of which is out now.
Photo is courtesy of Beth Knight whose work can be found here.
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