Live Report: David Byrne, St Anne's Park

The last time David Byrne visited these shores just before St Patrick’s Day, he lit up the 3 Arena with a truly celebratory and downright joyous gig, augmented by some of the most stunning visual effects an Irish audience had ever seen. Ever since this return visit to Clontarf had been announced, this reviewer worried that an outdoor concert in the bright summer air wouldn’t be able to come close to the magic of that March night in the docklands.

Galway indie collective Newdad and British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks warm the crowd up as the weather turns slowly from drizzle to downpour, the latter with a set mostly drawn from her current album, Ambiguous Desire, which sees the Mercury Prize winner indulging her love of dance music and all things synth.

And then the main event, as Byrne and his 12-strong backing band take to the stage in matching blue boiler suits to the strains and strings of ‘Heaven’, from Talking Heads’ 1979 album, Fear Of Music.

Like on the 2018-19 American Utopia tour, David Byrne of 2026 eschews the traditional band structure. Instead of a seated drummer, for example, he uses a number of percussionists, each with their drum of choice strapped to their back, so every member of this multi-limbed musical tribe can move freely about the stage. And what beautiful movements they make, each song a tightly choreographed spectacle of dance and bodily interplay.

At 74, Byrne himself is in fantastic physical shape, leading this chorus through almost two hours of musical magic that takes in his vast legacy, from Talking Heads’ classics to last year’s joyous Who Is The Sky? album. Tracks as old as 1988’s calypso-crazy ‘(Nothing But) Flowers’ and ‘Like Humans Do’ from 2001’s Look Into The Eyeball, sit easily alongside the giddy ‘Everybody Laughs’ and the chamber pop of his lockdown look-back, ‘My Apartment Is My Friend’, the latter complete with backing visuals of Byrne’s stunning New York abode, where if you look close enough you can see what books are on his shelves.

During ‘This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)’, water cascades from the top of the stage as the evening’s unceasing downpour takes its toll on the hardware, before Byrne and band pause in perfect time, as they sing “Love me til my heart stops”.

Anyone who was at the 3Arena show just three months ago knew what to expect, and Byrne and band deliver. However, it is pretty much an exact replica of that show, even down to the visuals and the frontman’s between-song patter and introductions, so much so that for those of us who had seen it before, it felt like a Broadway show or stage musical more than a living, breathing, sweaty gig. The fact that he didn’t even make reference to the persistent Irish rain felt a little strange.

That said, it’s still hugely enjoyable. The combination of light-show and choreography of ‘Life During Wartime’ is superb, as images of recent events in the US flash on the big screen. There’s mass dancing and singing in the rain to a greatest hits set, including a stunning ‘Psycho Killer, a liquid ‘Slippery People’ and magnificent closer ‘Burning Down The House’ sending us home soggy but sated.