Talking Heads reunite for Q&A, David Byrne admits he wanted a bigger suit
Hopefully, this Talking Heads reunion isn’t a once in a lifetime type deal
Aux News David Byrne
Toronto is a place, a place where Talking Heads reunite.
For the first time since their 2002 Rock ’N’ Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, the four Talking Heads shared the stage. Celebrating the world premiere of the 4k restoration of their seminal concert film Stop Making Sense at the Scotiabank Theater for the Toronto Film Festival, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison joined moderator Spike Lee for a brief Q&A following a screening of the movie. And, well, we’ll just spit it out: David Byrne thought his suit should’ve been bigger in the film.
“I was told that everything should be bigger onstage,” Byrne said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my suit should be bigger too.’”
But that’s not all that happened. Setting a new precedent for how the band members treat each other, tensions were at an all-time low. Per The L.A. Times, the long-awaited reunion did not illuminate, touch upon, or even mention the group’s breakup and long-simmering animosity. Instead, they discussed the power of the movie, which reportedly caused audience members, including Byrne and Lee, to stand and dance in the aisles. Even drummer Chris Frantz, who wrote a book primarily about how much he loves his wife, Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth, and how much he hates frontman David Byrne, said it was “so good to be here with my bandmates.”
The screening served as the premiere for A24’s 4K restoration of Stop Making Sense, which was simulcast with the Q&A at IMAX theaters. Lee, who directed Byrne’s Broadway show, American Utopia declared it “the greatest concert film ever.” And, yeah, our fact-checkers have determined that Spike Lee is correct. “One of the reasons for the lasting power of the film is you can see how much fun we are having onstage,” said guitarist Jerry Harrison with another correct statement.
Of course, not even tentative decisions have been made about whether there will be another reunion, perhaps one where the Talking Heads hold and play instruments. Maybe a dream operator can make that happen sometime. Still, progress is progress.
“Divorces are never easy,” Byrne told The New York Times earlier this week. “We get along OK. It’s all very cordial and whatever. It’s not like we’re all best friends. But everybody’s very happy to see this film coming back out.
“We’re all united in the fact that we really love what we did here. So that kind of helps us talk to one another and get along.”
31 Comments
James Brown. James Brown.
can you hit it and quit it
Still the Godfather of Soul, ya’ll…
“David Byrne thought his suit should’ve been bigger in the film.”
JFC, that’s not what happened at all. “I was told that everything should be bigger onstage,” Byrne said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my suit should be bigger too.’” That’s David describing how he came up with the idea for the suit, not him wishing it was bigger.And also, Spike was hammered and could not ask a coherent question. It was a total waste of an opportunity having them all together with a moderator who, several times, would set up a question and then not actually ask a question.
Joe_Stammer literally knowing more about the event than the writer of the article. Bravo, AV Club!
“who, several times, would set up a question and then not actually ask a question.”
Is this an appropriate time for a “The AV Club”?
Find someone who loves you as much as Chris Frantz hates David Byrne.
I get the sense that if Byrne gave the go-ahead for a reunion, Chris would still be first in line to join up. He clearly loves the work they did. Tina, on the other hand… well, I’ve never seen someone so uncomfortable as she was during the QA.
No kidding….you could feel the seeth.
The AV Club: “Talking Heads reunite…”
Me: “YES! That is AWESOME!”
The AV Club: “…for a Q&A.”
Me: “…oh…*sigh*”
Apparently David Byrne, as brilliant as he was, was an asshole, alienating the rest of the band,
I’ve been in that band…except for all the ‘success’ baggage.
Me in the minority hoping they don’t get back together to tour because sometimes endings should just be endings.R.E.M., on the other hand…
Could we get a dual drums, Berry & Waronker situation? Is it wrong to want that?!?!
I don’t know you, but I know if they got back together to play 20 shows people like you and me wouldn’t be able to get/afford tickets anyway.
I like R.E.M. but seriously, Talking Heads >>>>>>> R.E.M >>> R.E.O. Speedwagon
As a connoisseur of The Replacements live shows back when it splattered, er, mattered, I remain saddened and permanently meh at their “reunion” show a few years back. REO Speedwagon is still touring in some capacity, and my city recently hosted (checks notes) 4 of the remaining Doobie Brothers (though do we consider Michael McDonald an actual Brother or just a solo act slumming?).
I’m just here to say this new 4K restoration is pure bliss. Jerry Harrison did an amazing job with the sound. Night and day difference form the VHS dubbed copy I had growing up.
Just came in here to say the same thing— the audio restoration is the bigger story here than any improvements to the video. If anything, parts of it are actually grainer than I remember it being— especially the first few songs before the lights go out. Once the fuller band starts assembling on a darker stage, that’s when you can really see the richness of the visuals.But the sound– holy moly. See this in a theatre (sigh okay or a someone’s house) with a kickin’ sound system.
the Q&A was awkward as hell, pretty let down with how that went. maybe someone that can actually interview and knows music should have been the MC (Nardwuar?)
They should’ve gone with someone who was sober.
I see Jerry Harrison got his suit pressed and his face stretched for the occasion.
Byrne doing his best Yoda impersonation.Weymouth looks fabulous as usual.
“You may ask yourself: ‘Why such a big suit?’ You may ask yourself: ‘Didn’t the store have any mirrors?’”
Who knew a Rich Hall skit would show up?
Rich Hall. Classic SNL.
“…Lee, who directed Byrne’s Broadway show, American Utopia…”This should be clarified: Lee only directed the documentary/concert film of the show’s Broadway iteration. The show *itself* was directed (meaning, in this context, choreographed and staged, and production design approved by) Annie-B Parson, and it was adapted for Broadway into more of a “stage performance” by Alex Timbers, a stage director. (And IMHO, Lee did a shitty job, which bemused me as a fan of his).
Lee did such a TERRIBLE job with American Utopia. I saw the show on Broadway 3 times and loved it, but the film was so bad. When you watch SMS, you realize that Demme told the story in wide and medium shots and was OK with the camera being still at times. You knew where everyone was in relation to each other. In American Utopia, there was none of that. Granted, the musicians were in constant motion, but I think that’s a solid argument to keep the camera still. I know Spike loves a moving shot (to great effect in a lot of his films), but the end product was confusing and boring visually. Having seen SMS just the other night, I was struck by how many iconic shots I remembered from that movie and was hard pressed to remember one shot from AU.
Well-put. Spike had shots where he cut off their feet – during dance-y parts!
Just for the record, because Matt couldn’t be bothered to include any of the few *new* revelations about the film itself from the Q&A, as a public service, I will:- Byrne cites as concert-film influences he watched while preparing, in the sense of having a storytelling and visual thrust, a Parliamaent-Funkadelic concert film (my guess is Houston 1976, which was PPV’d and circulated,) and Neil Young’s “Rust Never Sleeps” (“Wow, he had some big amps onstage”). – They selected Jonathan Demme based on “Caged Heat” (seemed entirely jokingly) and “Melvin & Howard” specifically. Byrne & Harrison felt like he treated the doc like a dramatic ensemble film, introducing and shading in each character while building the film’s ‘story’. – In preparation, Demme went to most of the shows they played on the 1983 tour – he had planned to go to all of them, but Goldie Hawn viewed his first cut of “Swing Shift” and demanded a bunch of changes, requiring him to do reshoots for it instead.- In part because of Demme not being able to do much of that prep, Sandy McLeod, the tour’s visual consultant, mapped out every shot while on tour with them for many months. She really made the movie what it was visually and made sure every movement on stage was captured on camera.- They recorded all the sound digitally, because they were familiar enough with filmmaking to know that there would be so many edits and mixdowns that the sound would get very degraded. So they opted for the still-very-new digital recording system, and that choice obviously has paid off over the years.- Tina played her bass at “a level 3″, so that it wouldn’t overpower or wash out anyone else. But Jerry and Chris note that they all played relatively quietly. It was pre-in-ear monitors, and each of their amps were all mounted underneath and behind them, as part of the rolling-out platforms they enter on. They were able to precision-tune the balance they each heard of the other players by making adjustments over the previous tour – so each player’s mix that they heard was perfected and balanced well before the Pantages shows.- They all praised editor Lisa Day for her incredible efforts, Byrne in particular for how well she captured and presented everyone in the extended band making eye contact back and forth during the playing. Demme and Day welcomed the band to come watch the editing sessions (rare!) and used their suggestions for moments they should include.- The reason they were able to do that, and so accommodatingly, was… HAL ASHBY! Lisa was close to Hal (who of course came up as an editor himself), and was his editor on his 1982 Rolling Stones performance film “Let’s Spend The Night Together” – which he famously wasn’t happy with. He created a Betamax-cassette-based editing system while on his next concert film, Neil Young’s “Solo Trans”, which allowed him and editors to view and compare each camera reel simultaneously in selecting which take to use, rather than have to watch each separately and rely entirely on memory. Day isn’t credited on ST, but she may have observed the method, dome uncredited work, or just learned it from Hal – but it was an essential part of “Stop Making Sense”.- My own $0.00: it wasn’t a great event or anything, there was no reason to feel like you missed out at all. Spike was a pretty bad moderator, possibly drunk (and “Sign O The Times” was 5 years *afterwards*). They bandmembers were cordial, but stiff. It felt like a contractual obligation for A24 Publicity, but it was fine. It was *great* that they were able to play nice for a while, believe me – but there definitely won’t be a reunion in the works.- the new remaster and Jerry Harrison’s remix are indeed incredible and well worth experiencing. When it comes around to the film itself, it’s a fantastic job all around!!