David Byrne has never been one for small ideas, and his latest Tiny Desk performance proves it.
Known for sprawling live shows packed with musicians, intricate choreography, and unusual instrumentation, David Byrne somehow manages to condense all that energy into NPR’s famously tiny 10 by 11-foot space.
For his latest tour, promoting Who Is The Sky?, Byrne brought more than a dozen performers, covering everything from cello, saxophone, and marimba to Brazilian timbau and zabumba, not to mention a range of guitars and keys.
The result is a performance that somehow feels intimate without losing any of its scale. The band, dressed in matching brilliant blue suits, squeezes behind the desk to perform four tracks, starting with the euphoric opener ‘Everybody Laughs’ and following it with ‘Don’t Be Like That,’ both from the new album.
Byrne also slips in two Talking Heads classics. A vibrant rendition of 1988’s ‘(Nothing But) Flowers’ nods to his Talking Heads legacy, while a show-stopping take on 1979’s ‘Life During Wartime’ reminds listeners of his unmatched energy and precision.
Despite the confined space, the band’s barebones set design and compact, custom-made instruments keep the performance feeling dynamic and fluid, almost like a tightly choreographed marching band.
It’s proof that even in one of the tiniest performance spaces in music, David Byrne can make everything feel larger than life.
