David Byrne has already had a very eventful year. On top of preparing for his marriage to Mala Gaonkar, he's done a lot of fun things to promote Who Is The Sky?, his first solo album in seven years, including performing a bunch of songs on Fallon and chatting with Stereogum’s buildings and food correspondent Rachel Brown for our first-ever video edition We’ve Got A File On You interview series. Last night, he kicked off the album's supporting tour with a performance at Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh. Byrne celebrated his vast iconic catalogue, performing songs from the new album for the first time along with Talking Heads' classics and a Paramore cover.
According to setlist.fm, Byrne performed Talking Heads' hits like "Heaven," "And She Was," "Houses In Motion," "(Nothing But) Flowers," "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)," "Slippery People," "Burning Down The House," "Life During Wartime," "Once In A Lifetime," and "Psycho Killer." It was the first time Byrne had performed the latter live since 2006.
He also played "Strange Overtones," his collab with Brian Eno, and played Who Is The Sky? tracks "Don't Be Like That" and "I Met The Buddha At A Downtown Party" live for the first time. He covered Paramore's "Hard Times," from 2017's After Laughter. Byrne has worked at length with Paramore's Hayley Williams, not only have they covered each other's music but Williams is featured on Who Is The Sky?'s "What Is The Reason For It?" and they've also recently announced a new song “Open The Door,” which is set to be the end credits song they've written for Netflix’s upcoming film The Twits, an animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's work.
Watch videos from last night's performance in Pittsburgh below.
