Charlie Otto (lead singer, guitar) as David Byrne was a revelation- besides the music itself, The Talking Heads were famous for the pure energy channeled by David Byrne in concert and it's unlikely that they will ever play together again as a band...
Cover bands are mostly hit or miss- usually put together to play songs that everyone already knows and can sing along to in order to make a few bucks and get the audience into a good mood to buy more alcohol.
Tribute bands are another thing entirely. While they still play music that is not their own, there is often a passion there for the song that is simply not present in your run-of-the-mill band. Although This Must Be The Band has only been together since May of 2007, when they got into a good groove on stage they looked just as tight as any band I've ever seen. Obviously the members of the band have a genuine affection for the material that they are performing, and that feeling didn't take long to translate into an excited, energetic audience that only made the whole experience better.
Charlie Otto (lead singer, guitar) as David Byrne was a revelation- besides the music itself, The Talking Heads were famous for the pure energy channeled by David Byrne in concert and it's unlikely that they will ever play together again as a band. "We did have a lot of bad blood go down. That's one reason, and another is that musically we're just miles apart," said Byrne. Otto brought a youthful, renewed spirit to old Heads' songs that I hadn't really heard in person before. Otto had a few small problems with the lower register of Byrne's vocals, but overall his voice was very smooth and pulled all of the instruments together in the mix in a way that most established bands can only hope for.
Kasey Foster and Leah Karabenick (backing vocals) surprised me as well- it's not often that you hear such great voices from a local band. Designating their performance as "backing vocals" though is probably far undercutting their actual role in the night's production. If everyone on stage was having fun, these girls were off-the-wall insane! I can't imagine having seen the concert without the sheer excitement that was dripping off of them and into the audience.
Other highlights of the show include Pat Sweeney's (percussion) performance- running back and forth from behind his instruments to the other side of the stage every few minutes must have been a little exhausting, but he surely didn't show any signs of slowing down and I think everyone was surprised when he didn't collapse into a heap on the stage after the concert had ended!
The Big Suit, an extra large version of a business suit created by David Byrne to wear on stage, was also recreated for this concert and went a long way toward being faithful to the original concert movie. This Must Be The Band had encouraged their fans to dress up in clothes from the 80's, and at points during the evening (a few drinks may have helped) I felt as though I was at the original filming of Stop Making Sense.
There's much more to write, but no reason to keep you here when you could already be listening to some classic Talking Heads tunes via This Must Be The Band on their MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/thismustbetheband or going to one of their shows in and around the Chicago area..
