David Byrne Claims He’s Not ‘Slick and Perfect’

Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit? Heard about David Byrne doing a series of stripped-down American Utopia shows because of that variant? The “unplugged” run of shows might be over now — you snooze you lose — but Byrne was in a reflective mood while appearing on Monday’s Late Night, telling Seth Meyers that his twice-in-a-lifetime Broadway event was even more enjoyable because of its flaws. “I told people in this little message, ‘You can either get your money back or take what’s behind the curtain,’” Byrne explained. “I think audiences really liked it. It was not slick and perfect. There were times where I had to stop and ask the band, ‘Who starts this song?’ The audience loved that! They’d applaud for stuff like that.” What was indeed behind the curtain was a new set list, which included Talking Heads standards such as “Life During Wartime,” “(Nothing but) Flowers,” and “And She Was.” Dare we say it was slick and perfect.