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Stop Making Sense (1984)

A lone man carrying a cassette player and a guitar walks out onto the stage. He sets the cassette player down, which begins to play a catchy beat, as the man begins to play the guitar. This man is David Byrne and the song he is playing is Psycho Killer, one of the best known songs of The Talking Heads, one of the greatest bands of all time. And the film starts off on a frenetic journey of The Talking Heads playing at their very best.
For those who don't know, The Talking Heads are my favourite band. Thinking music for thinking people, but also maintaining a sort of mainstream feel to the rhythm and sound of their music. They hold a special place in my heart and so does this film. Not only for technical reasons, but musical as well.
What Byrne and co. acheived here is masterful. To take the already brilliant studio versions of their songs and make them 10 times better live is astounding. But they do it here and more. Being that Stop Making Sense was my favourite album before I saw this movie, this last paragraph is probably pointless in conveying my opinion on the film itself, but the music. Oh mama, the music.
And if there was a man born to perform on a stage, it's David Byrne. He's brilliant, vocally and physically, performing with amazing energy and inspired dance moves. It's probably one of the best 'performances' I've ever seen.
It won't surprise you that I consider this to be the greatest concert film of all time, but it is. An extremely wonderful experience.
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A lone man carrying a cassette player and a guitar walks out onto the stage. He sets the cassette player down, which begins to play a catchy beat, as the man begins to play the guitar. This man is David Byrne and the song he is playing is Psycho Killer, one of the best known songs of The Talking Heads, one of the greatest bands of all time. And the film starts off on a frenetic journey of The Talking Heads playing at their very best.
For those who don't know, The Talking Heads are my favourite band. Thinking music for thinking people, but also maintaining a sort of mainstream feel to the rhythm and sound of their music. They hold a special place in my heart and so does this film. Not only for technical reasons, but musical as well.
What Byrne and co. acheived here is masterful. To take the already brilliant studio versions of their songs and make them 10 times better live is astounding. But they do it here and more. Being that Stop Making Sense was my favourite album before I saw this movie, this last paragraph is probably pointless in conveying my opinion on the film itself, but the music. Oh mama, the music.
And if there was a man born to perform on a stage, it's David Byrne. He's brilliant, vocally and physically, performing with amazing energy and inspired dance moves. It's probably one of the best 'performances' I've ever seen.
It won't surprise you that I consider this to be the greatest concert film of all time, but it is. An extremely wonderful experience.
+