Dressed to kill, these two art-rock crooners teamed up for an evening of funk-filled and sexy tunes, all underpinned by a buoyant brass section and their own unique compositions.
Hailing from disparate backgrounds and seemingly distant career trajectories, former Talking Heads front man David Byrne and solo singer/songwriter St Vincent (aka Annie Clark) have formed an unlikely sonic alliance built on their shared eclecticism and pop sensibility. The project eventually grew into the 2012 album, Love This Giant, featuring a slate of well-crafted, jaunty pop songs that showcase Byrne’s distinct yelp, as well as Clark’s soaring vocal trills, all accompanied by a pumping horn section.
For their current tour, the pair are performing some of the tracks off that album as well as fresh additions, and have taken advantage of the full brass band at their disposal. Clark’s time in The Polyphonic Spree will no doubt have accustomed her ear to the power of well-timed, dynamic brass hooks. Likewise Byrne, who has (among myriad projects) run a world music record label since the 1990’s specialising in Latin and Afro-Cuban tunes, and also written a Dirty Dozen-inspired brass band score for a Robert Wilson opera.
The result is a well-paced set featuring strident, poppy numbers that had most people chair-dancing, punctuated by slower, ballad compositions where the horn section does not feature as prominently and the vocal dexterity of the pair carries the band through.
The set kicked off with the single release ‘Who’, featuring Clark’s unmistakable trill in the chorus, and there was a great crowd reaction when they also played the popular ‘Lazy’. From the Talking Heads back-catalogue, the audience heard the ambient, chipper melody of ‘This Must Be the Place’ early in the set. Later came ‘Burning Down the House’, in a new, brass-heavy arrangement that made the State Theatre erupt into spontaneous dancing. The duo also played ‘I’m On a Road to Nowhere’ after the first encore, again setting the whole venue off. After a standing ovation, they returned for a second encore.
A lot of thought had obviously gone into the choreography, with Annie-B Parson of Brooklyn’s Big Dance Theatre responsible for the performers’ movements. Seeing Byrne in his white blazer and black trousers jerkily blocking out moves was reminiscent of Jon Voigt’s dancing in the Fatboy Slim clip for ‘Weapon of Choice’. At other times his movements recalled Soviet-era calisthenics. The brass band were not spared their role in the onslaught, and it has to be said that there were a few naff choreographic inclusions, like the conga line, and a Matrix-style slow motion wobble. Thankfully, the music mostly overshadowed these minor flaws.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
David Byrne & St Vincent
State Theatre, Sydney
17 – 18 January
Sydney Festival 2013
www.sydneyfestival.org.au
5 – 27 January
