In some alternate universe, the Big Bang would’ve happened at a David Byrne show and we’d be living in a world full of love, joy, camaraderie and harmony. On Tuesday, the audience at The Auditorium found a temporary 105-minute portal into Byrne’s ongoing exploration of an “American Utopia.” And was it ever hard to leave behind when the show was over.
For more than 50 years, the Talking Heads front man and prolific solo artist has had a uniquely godlike way of building worlds and playing with imagination by merging art, theater and sound. One listen to “Once in a Lifetime” or watching the exceptional Jonathan Demme-helmed concert film “Stop Making Sense” drives this home.
But whereas Byrne’s visual experimentalism once centered on surrealist big suits and noodly body movements, since his multipronged 2018 album/2019 Broadway play/2020 Spike Lee HBO film “American Utopia” took shape, he’s been dialed into hypervisions of humanity more than ever. Byrne’s production of “Theater of the Mind” at the Goodman Theatre next year (announced Tuesday) will reportedly carry on these themes in an immersive exploration of “how we see and create our worlds,” according to the Goodman’s website. (Byrne stated that patrons to his Auditorium shows will get first access to tickets.)
From theater to music, one of Byrne’s great legacies is that he navigates these ideas in a simplified way that encourages his largely boomer/Gen X crowds to tap into a recessed childlike wonder that makes them believe they can take crayons out of the box and draw anything into existence.
On his latest tour, the 73-year-old plays into this essence. The nonsensical syntax of “Who Is the Sky?” which is also the name of the tour, conjures a nursery rhyme. A billowing 12-piece ensemble (all dressed in vibrant blue painter coveralls) with exaggerated choreography and standing musicians parading around the stage with a playbox of instruments strapped to their bodies add to the children’s TV show vibes.
The playful and uplifting nature was the perfect frame for the 21-song set, which brought up heavy topics in a glass half-full manner. The night began with a stripped-back version of Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” where Byrne, joined by a pair of violinists and keyboardist, gave an eloquent and somber delivery that ignited existentialist questions. Behind them, panels of floor-to-ceiling curved screens displayed the surface of the moon in Imax proportions as Earth slowly came into the purview. “This is our heaven, it’s the only one we have,” Byrne declared, pointing at Earth, as the song wrapped up. It was immediately followed by the first of many deserved standing ovations.
Most were reserved for the big Talking Heads numbers: “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody),” “Psycho Killer” and the big finale of “Burning Down the House,” all well-oiled performances that spooned out heaps of nostalgia. “Life During Wartime” was an exception, as the song found new meaning with the screens behind the ensemble consumed by footage of federal agents in Chicago carrying out the Trump administration’s campaign against immigration, including video that’s gone viral of a man on a bike being chased by federal agents.
David Byrne performs at the Auditorium on Tuesday. The Talking Heads front man was backed by a 12-piece ensemble (all dressed in vibrant blue painter coveralls) and musicians parading around the stage with instruments strapped to their bodies, all of which added to the playful nature of the show.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
For “And She Was,” Byrne also padded in the song’s supposed Chicago-centric origin story. “I was in high school in Baltimore and knew a young woman who seemed extraordinarily happy. I wondered what did she know that I didn’t know yet?” Her response: taking LSD and lying in a field near the old Blommer’s chocolate factory. True or not, what was inarguable is that even if we never get a proper Talking Heads reunion this side of the millennium, Byrne is keeping the body of work alive.
During the night, he also snuck in a cover of Paramore’s “Hard Times” as a nod to his “Who Is the Sky?” collaborator Hayley Williams. But even with all the gold standards, the understated standouts of the night were Byrne’s latest solo works and the messages behind them — the bulk of which nabbed him a recent nomination for the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame class.
“Moisturizing Thing,” one of the most bizarre tracks on “Who Is the Sky?,” was used as a platform to talk about not judging people by their appearance (Byrne asked the crowd if they could tell who in the ensemble had a master’s in physics and then jokingly recalled a time early in his career when someone thought he was reminiscent of Norman Bates). It was followed by “My Apartment Is My Friend” in which the screens were filled with a mini “Cribs” tour of his hallowed space in New York.
The most poignant story came ahead of “Everybody’s Coming To My House,” which Byrne said took on new meaning after the pandemic. “As restrictions were easing up, I was biking around downtown New York and heard a familiar sound but I couldn’t identify it,” he recalled. “It was people talking to each other. … And I realized despite all our differences, people still like being with other people.”
Especially when it’s in a world like David Byrne’s.
David Byrne returns to the Auditorium Theatre Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
David Byrne Set List for the Oct. 28 show at the Auditorium
Heaven (Talking Heads song)
Everybody Laughs
And She Was (Talking Heads song)
Strange Overtones (Brian Eno & David Byrne song)
Houses in Motion (Talking Heads song)
T-Shirt
(Nothing but) Flowers (Talking Heads song)
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads song)
What Is the Reason for It?
Like Humans Do
Don’t Be Like That
Independence Day
Slippery People (Talking Heads song)
Moisturizing Thing
My Apartment Is My Friend
Hard Times (Paramore cover)
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads song)
Life During Wartime (Talking Heads song)
Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)
Encore:
Everybody’s Coming to My House
Burning Down the House (Talking Heads song)