Hey, jealousy. The crowd at the Montreal Society for Arts and Technology KANPE KANAVAL benefit concert was transported to another plane of melodic euphoria when Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, and Richard Reed Parry united with David Byrne to perform songs from Talking Heads.
Byrne, who was frontman of the erstwhile Heads, has somehow preserved his lazy yet crystal clear monotone across the decades. Despite the videos’ subpar sound quality, it’s clear that he was in fine form during this impromptu jam. Butler’s predominately white ensemble even hearkens the iconic big white suit from the Talking Heads’s 1984 Stop Making Sense concert film. And Chassagne is, as always, the sweet-voiced wood sprite of our dreams.
Vulture has collected several videos of the collaboration, from which you can catch snippets of “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” and “Road to Nowhere.” Full disclosure: I saw Byrne perform the latter with St. Vincent while accompanied by a small brass band. Had death seen fit to take me at that moment, I could not have complained.
Though we should all encourage Byrne to give us several more performances of “Psycho Killer,” don’t you think?
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Top Image via Getty. Embedded Images via Instagram. Video via YouTube.