David Byrne journals Songs of Byrne and Eno tour

Someday in the not-too-distant future, some music critic will catalog and analyze the rise of tour and recording diaries. It seems that albums and shows are not like sausages or laws—people do in fact want to know how they're made and where they gained strength or faltered along the way.

Along with avant-classical composer Nico Muhly, the hyper-productive Ryan Adams and Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, Talking Heads founder David Byrne will likely be a case study of this future work. His steadily updated tour diary mixes reflexive observations and reminiscences with the rehearsals and travels that transpire when the icon is offstage. He muses about what a soul is, why machines matter, how the use of an orchestra alters musical experience and the current state of the New York scene while documenting the American journey of his latest tour.

Perhaps most interesting aspect of the journal is how Byrne feels about the crowds in each city. Before his Atlanta show, he considers how this tour, which features music from the Byrne-Eno collaboration Everything That Happens Will Happen Today and past works from the duo (though Eno's not a member of the touring band), fits in with this Talking Head past:

This will be our fourth show. It’s going incredibly well so far. Even though the Newport News, Virginia audience was a little restrained for a while, they were up and dancing by the end. The dancing element of the show really lifts everything to another level. At first, I was concerned that it would even “work” and be a real integrated part of the show. It is. In Baltimore, at the Lyric Theater, someone yelled out in the middle of the show, “This is the best show EVER!” Wow, I thought to myself, you can’t ask for more than that. It makes me feel strange to say it, but this exhilaration at seeing something slightly risky work reminds me a little of the first few times Talking Heads performed as an expanded band. Then, as now, we’d rehearsed for weeks but had no idea if it would actually work in front of our audience — yet it did. Seeing this work gives me a similar feeling.