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With his exhilarating melodies, groovy rhythms, distinctive voice, innovative live shows and spirited dance moves, David Byrne has been a cultural force for decades. On April 16, he and his spectacular band offered the audience at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater an evening of audio-visual entertainment, co-presented by Stanford Live and Goldenvoice.
Byrne rose to prominence as the leader of the art-rock band Talking Heads in the 1970s and ’80s, and that group’s “Stop Making Sense” set the high-water mark for stagecraft and concert films.
Over the course of his long and interesting career, the polymath and bicycling advocate has continued to work on all kinds of projects, including founding the nonprofit online magazine “Reasons to be Cheerful,” which offers “stories of hope, rooted in evidence.” That effort is connected to his 2018 album “American Utopia,” which went on to become a Broadway show and Spike Lee film.
Recently, he’s popped up in collaborations with the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and released his latest album “Who Is The Sky?” in September 2025 (his trip up to Stanford came between performances at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival the preceding and following Saturdays).
While Byrne has been to Stanford before (he’s even designed artistic bike racks for the campus), he noted it was, to his recollection, his first time playing at the amphitheater.
Part of what made the “American Utopia” tour so dazzling was the way Byrne and company were able to move about the stage freely, unburdened by wires, microphones, amplifiers and other equipment. The “Who Is The Sky?” tour continues in that welcome style, with its 14 instrumentalists and singer/dancers all mobile, clad in matching outfits and engaging in choreography throughout. Byrne, who turns 74 next month, remains spry, graceful and funky.
This tour is also notable for its use of immersive visuals. Each song comes with unique projections (including, at the end of the Talking Heads classic “Life During Wartime,” footage of ICE action and protests).
In addition to multiple songs from the new album, such as “Everybody Laughs,” “When We Are Singing” and “What is the Reason for It?”, the setlist at the April 16 show was populated heavily by Talking Heads songs, including “Once in a Lifetime,” “Nothing But Flowers” and “And She Was,” among many others.
Other selections from the post-Talking Heads canon included “Strange Overtones” from the 2008 album “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today,” by Byrne and longtime collaborator Brian Eno, and “Like Humans Do” from 2001’s “Look Into the Eyeball.”
Lyrical references to houses and homes loomed large in the setlist, from the “home is where I want to be” opening line of “Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place),” encore closer “Burning Down the House” and the deeper cut “Houses in Motion” to “Everybody’s Coming to My House” and “My Apartment Is My Friend” from the new album. In the latter’s case, the imagery was also made visual, with a panorama-esque shot of Byrne’s own New York City abode displayed during the song, which was inspired, he explained, by his gratitude for his apartment as a comfortable and safe solo haven during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the opening number, “Heaven,” from the Talking Heads album “Fear of Music,” an image of Earth as seen from space rose behind the musicians, who played from what appeared to be a lunar landscape.
“That’s our heaven,” Byrne said of our home planet. “The only one we have.”
I first became a David Byrne fan in my youth, listening to my parents’ Talking Heads albums. It was especially sweet, then, to bring to the concert my own daughter, representing the newest in our family’s three generations of listeners. Same as it ever was.
Next up at Frost Amphitheater is Dabin’s Stay in Bloom festival May 1-2 and Blackfest 2026 on May 3; 351 Lasuen St., Stanford; live.stanford.edu.
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