I'm still a bit stunned by this one. I'm sure some will dismiss as hyperbole, but I legitimately can't think of a more impressive concert booking in many years in OKC. I'm not suggesting that his popular stature as an artist eclipses someone like Paul McCartney or Garth Brooks or [insert Chesapeake show], nor am I saying he's a hotter act in the moment than some recent shows like Alt-J or My Morning Jacket or The XX, etc.. What I am saying that those arena acts are more predictable with an building of that type, and that occasional indie shows squirted through in the past, while this show is EXACTLY the type of show that OKC could never get before our new venues appeared. I think this bodes really well for the local concert scene.

Anyone know of any presales for the David Byrne show?

Anyone know of any presales for the David Byrne show?

Tickets are on sale now. Too expensive for me! :(

Holy crap!

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/byrnetickets.jpg

My goodness. That's unreal (and RIDICULOUS).

They are slightly cheaper on the Criterion website (unless the prices pete posted include extra fees)

He may be playing to an empty building at those prices..... I wouldn't go see my favorite artist for those prices.

http://www.ticketoffices.com/David-Byrne/14795/2587366

14379

My post is wrong.

Tickets don't go on sale until 1/19 through Live Nation and they are showing $45-150.

https://concerts1.livenation.com/event/2000542BAEA18308?irgwc=1&clickid=wjtQOOXo6RcDx-q1xwU8HW6PUkmXAfVtw0bt3I0&camefrom=CFC_BUYAT_253158&impradid=253158&REFERRAL_ID=tmfeedbuyat253158&wt.mc_id=aff_BUYAT_253158&utm_source=253158-Facebook-%2520TM&impradname=Facebook-%2520TM&utm_medium=affiliate

hmm neither of those websites seem 100%legit

My post is wrong.

Tickets don't go on sale until 1/19 through Live Nation and they are showing $45-150.

https://concerts1.livenation.com/event/2000542BAEA18308?irgwc=1&clickid=wjtQOOXo6RcDx-q1xwU8HW6PUkmXAfVtw0bt3I0&camefrom=CFC_BUYAT_253158&impradid=253158&REFERRAL_ID=tmfeedbuyat253158&wt.mc_id=aff_BUYAT_253158&utm_source=253158-Facebook-%2520TM&impradname=Facebook-%2520TM&utm_medium=affiliate

whew... glad I wasn't suckered into buying one

Those are resale prices, the Livenation website says $45-150 + fees.

Those are resale prices, the Livenation website says $45-150 + fees.

Ha, okay. I retract my previously posted internet outrage!

IMHO, the Drop Kick Murphys are as big if not a bigger get for OKC.

No disrespect to David or his fans. He is an accomplished artist. But he has not done a solo alblum in years or toured.
Tastes are subjective. Ymmv

No disrespect to David or his fans. He is an accomplished artist. But he has not done a solo alblum in years or toured.
Tastes are subjective. Ymmv

This tour is for his new album, American Utopia, that will be released this spring.

No disrespect to David or his fans. He is an accomplished artist. But he has not done a solo alblum in years or toured.
Tastes are subjective. Ymmv
You’re kidding, right? As in, you totally meant this post as a joke? When Dropkick Murphys play Diamond in March it will be at least their third show there in the past 5 years. I went to one myself. They are a great band and a great show, but they’ll play just about anywhere and they tour incessantly.

My comment wasn’t taste-based. Byrne doesn’t tour much at all. I think Talking Heads only played OKC once, in 1982. The tour he is on is almost exclusively tier one type stops, including places like the Ryman Auditorium and Red Rocks. Dropkick Murphys don’t play Red Rocks. They play Diamond Ballroom. On the regular.

Yeah after I looked up Byrne, I get the hype

Criterion has not updated their calendar, it only shows through March and I count a paltry 4 shows total listed.

SAD!!

lol

I wonder if the David Byrne show will sell out? Any predictions?

Yeah after I looked up Byrne, I get the hype

Wow, that's an interesting comment, never even considered people didn't know who he was.

For Urbanized - yeah, Talking Heads played the Zoo back in 1982, Joe "King" Carrasco opened, it rained, Joe ran around the entire amphitheater doing a guitar solo all the while, the Heads got ticked off after it rained and the stage wasn't protected, and apparently they said they would never come back (and they didn't, but they broke up shortly afterwards anyway).

Livenation's website totally screwed me on tickets. $65/seat tickets are now $120 and their system went down for 4+ hours last night.

Wow, that's an interesting comment, never even considered people didn't know who he was.

I'm going to be honest, I consider myelf pretty well versed in different types of music from different eras and I could not have told you who David Byrne was. I had vaguely heard of the Talking Heads and when I looked them up I've ceratinly heard some of their songs, but I can't say that I've ever heard a friend mention being a fan of them. Maybe I was just off generationally growing up in the '90s?

I'm going to be honest, I consider myelf pretty well versed in different types of music from different eras and I could not have told you who David Byrne was. I had vaguely heard of the Talking Heads and when I looked them up I've ceratinly heard some of their songs, but I can't say that I've ever heard a friend mention being a fan of them. Maybe I was just off generationally growing up in the '90s?

Whaaaa??

I can't believe this.

I’d never heard of him either.

I didn't know his name. When somebody said "Talking Heads", I knew that immediately. But I don't know 90% of the people you guys talk about in this thread.

Born in 92. Know who the Talking Heads were. Never heard of David Byrne, though.

David Byrne is a musical genius. His Luaka Bop label was instrumental in bringing so many styles of world music into mainstream consciousness. I have no idea what his current material is but he has exquisite taste and I agree with the folks above saying this is a huge deal for OKC. Curious to hear some of his new work.

I’d never heard of him either.

Same. :dontgetit

Have to say I’m with the others that didn’t know/ remember who he is and I’m a former musician and maintain a rather ecclectic playlist.

I can honestly say though that I was never a Talking Heads fan.

Man, I feel old now..... But I was always (and still am) a music geek re: members of bands, songs, history, family trees, etc., now get off of my lawn (shaking fist)!!! :)

OK, I don’t mean to be condescending here, but if you consider yourself to be a fan of punk/indie/alternative in any way shape or form, you and whatever bands you’re listening to owe a massive debt to the NYC punk scene centered around CBGB, which itself was centered around a few very influential bands who got their start there or at least entered the public consciousness there.

Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, and even later bands like REM and B-52s. Some of these bands and especially Talking Heads pioneered things like art-film music video (as opposed to simple performance clips), and later Byrne as a solo artist pioneered fusion with world music. He’s just an incredibly influential musician in the same vein as someone like Bowie, Sting, Debbie Harry, etc.

Honestly, if you consider yourself a serious music fan and ESPECIALLY if you consider yourself a fan of punk/indie/alternative you owe it to yourself to know something about the emergence of the genre and who the important players were. It’s every bit as important to the evolution of the music we listen to today as was the British Invasion, or Memphis in the ‘50s, or Bob Wills, or Delta Blues.

Here’s a good place to start: https://nypost.com/2016/08/30/how-the-ramones-rose-from-cbgb-originals-to-punk-rock-legends/

OK, I don’t mean to be condescending here, but if you consider yourself to be a fan of punk/indie/alternative in any way shape or form, you and whatever bands you’re listening to owe a massive debt to the NYC punk scene centered around CBGB, which itself was centered around a few very influential bands who got their start there or at least entered the public consciousness there.

Ramones, Patti Smith, Television, Blondie, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, and even later bands like REM and B-52s. Some of these bands and especially Talking Heads pioneered things like art-film music video (as opposed to simple performance clips), and later Byrne as a solo artist pioneered fusion with world music. He’s just an incredibly influential musician in the same vein as someone like Bowie, Sting, Debbie Harry, etc.

Honestly, if you consider yourself a serious music fan and ESPECIALLY if you consider yourself a fan of punk/indie/alternative you owe it to yourself to know something about the emergence of the genre and who the important players were. It’s every bit as important to the evolution of the music we listen to today as was the British Invasion, or Memphis in the ‘50s, or Bob Wills, or Delta Blues.

Here’s a good place to start: https://nypost.com/2016/08/30/how-the-ramones-rose-from-cbgb-originals-to-punk-rock-legends/

+1

How cool was the cutaway of the Mindhunters episode on Netflix featuring "Psycho Killers" by the Talking Heads? Just an amazing choice for the episode -- a great song that was way ahead of its time. There is a ton of good music out there but so much of it is so derivative. What an exciting time to be alive it must have been to be part of that New York scene in the late 1970s through the 80s. I caught the tail end of the CBGB era when I lived in New York but it's just amazing to think about what happened there during that time.

+1

How cool was the cutaway of the Mindhunters episode on Netflix featuring "Psycho Killers" by the Talking Heads? Just an amazing choice for the episode -- a great song that was way ahead of its time. There is a ton of good music out there but so much of it is so derivative. What an exciting time to be alive it must have been to be part of that New York scene in the late 1970s through the 80s. I caught the tail end of the CBGB era when I lived in New York but it's just amazing to think about what happened there during that time.

During that era I was pretty heavy into "Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street?"

I'm going to be honest, I consider myelf pretty well versed in different types of music from different eras and I could not have told you who David Byrne was. I had vaguely heard of the Talking Heads and when I looked them up I've ceratinly heard some of their songs, but I can't say that I've ever heard a friend mention being a fan of them. Maybe I was just off generationally growing up in the '90s?

You didn't have a copy of Windows XP I guess either??

Funny, I was born in ‘67 and I’m incredibly conversant with the key artists and genre shifts of the ‘50s, 60s and early 70s. Good music is good music, and you’ll get better appreciation for the stuff that you love if you know where it came from.

I do think part of the problem here can be explained by the shift from radio to Internet-based listening. I personally like to explore and the Internet provides an incredible opportunity to discover new artists and new music (or at least new to you). But unlike radio it also allows you to completely wall yourself off from music you’re not interested in (or at least THINK you wouldn’t be interested in).

Artists like Talking Heads - while they became huge and mainstream during their own era - were not as exposed to the masses AFTER their prime in the same way that sixties era artists were. Meaning when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s I was exposed to classic rock era bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors - or even lesser-celebrated bands like Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Guess Who, Rare Earth, etc - whether I chose to be or not (I chose to be). If you listened to radio to hear the latest from Van Halen, you were also going to hear those bands.

I think eighties era bands probably suffer from the listening public’s ability to limit their own music exposure. It’s a shame, because that was also a pretty special time for music.

Talking Heads went mainstream just after high school for me. Liked and appreciated them, especially in contrast to the status quo at the time. However, some 15 years later, I saw Tom Tom Club (former Talking Head members and spouses Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz) at a free show produced by Ashley Capps (co-founder of Bonnaroo) in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was then that I became a superfan of Byrne and Talking Heads. Anyone with the resources that misses this show because they're not familiar is making a big mistake.

^^^^^^^
Other than an unspecified quantity of general admission tickets and a few singles in the reserved seating the show is now sold out. There are a number of tickets available on the LiveNation site in the reserved seating from verified resellers, but those are going for multiple times over face.

My jaw dropped when I read numerous posts from folks who don't know who David Byrne is. I was born in 1987. I didn't grow up listening to Byrne or the Talking Heads, but once I got to college and my musical spectrum widened a bit I became a massive fan. This is absolutely huge for OKC. If you consider yourself a fan of the broader genre of "alternative rock" you should know this name. The ticket prices are a bit steep but I do think this one will sell out. Me and a group of 7 all bought tickets the second they went on sale. The group is all 28-32 years old, for reference.

^^^^^
Props. I get people not knowing who My Morning Jacket or The XX or Alt-J or Sturgill Simpson are when they play here (even though those acts are huge at the moment and pack venues like this). But it’s truly astounding that people who at least claim to love music aren’t familiar at all with Byrne. He’s foundational. Ask St. Vincent.

Funny, I was born in ‘67 and I’m incredibly conversant with the key artists and genre shifts of the ‘50s, 60s and early 70s. Good music is good music, and you’ll get better appreciation for the stuff that you love if you know where it came from.

I do think part of the problem here can be explained by the shift from radio to Internet-based listening. ...

I was born in 1965 and know about all kinds of music and artists basically all the way back to 1900, but again I'm a music geek. I'm amazed at how little popular music history is known by some people (not here, just in general), even among folks my age. For me, the fun in music is seeing who's influenced by who else, going down rabbit holes that lead to many different artists/genres/influences, and yeah, I agree, I think internet-based listening is destroying a lot of that - no background info, no sleeve to look at, nothing is known about an artist except that specific song at that specific moment in time. As you said, that's why radio's great (or used to be greater than it currently is), leads off on all kinds of tangents...

You’re kidding, right? As in, you totally meant this post as a joke? When Dropkick Murphys play Diamond in March it will be at least their third show there in the past 5 years. I went to one myself. They are a great band and a great show, but they’ll play just about anywhere and they tour incessantly.

My comment wasn’t taste-based. Byrne doesn’t tour much at all. I think Talking Heads only played OKC once, in 1982. The tour he is on is almost exclusively tier one type stops, including places like the Ryman Auditorium and Red Rocks. Dropkick Murphys don’t play Red Rocks. They play Diamond Ballroom. On the regular.

I'm sorry but I am not familiar with the term" tier one type stops". Looking at the first four shows I see Red Bank, NJ, Wilkes Barre, PA, Buffalo NY, and Hershey PA. To further claim that this is the most impressive concert booking in years in OKC, is somewhat of an overstatement with a bevy of posters saying "Who?". Again not downplaying the talent but c'mon now, no solo albums in 14 years and no touring in eight? Was Jerry Harrison not available ? Heck at least I know he is.

Born in '87. Logging in to stick up for the Millennials. Huge Talking Heads fan. Huge David Byrne solo/Brian Eno collab fan. Plenty of us know good music.

Anyone who's not familiar should just go watch Stop Making Sense. I know you're supposed to say that the Last Waltz is the all-time greatest concert film, but Stop Making Sense is my personal favorite.

Born in '87. Logging in to stick up for the Millennials. Huge Talking Heads fan. Huge David Byrne solo/Brian Eno collab fan. Plenty of us know good music.

Anyone who's not familiar should just go watch Stop Making Sense. I know you're supposed to say that the Last Waltz is the all-time greatest concert film, but Stop Making Sense is my personal favorite.

Good to 'see' you.

And not surprised you know about David Byrne.

Yes, millennials, if you value music, you should know David Byrne. His book "How Music Works" is also excellent.

Born in '87. Logging in to stick up for the Millennials. Huge Talking Heads fan. Huge David Byrne solo/Brian Eno collab fan. Plenty of us know good music.

Anyone who's not familiar should just go watch Stop Making Sense. I know you're supposed to say that the Last Waltz is the all-time greatest concert film, but Stop Making Sense is my personal favorite.

Great point and I'll second that - Stop Making Sense is fantastic, Jonathan Demme did a fantastic job of holding long shots and not cutting to a new one every few seconds, and not showing the audience, then the Heads stage show is just perfect in the way it all builds up...

If you like Stop Making Sense you need to check out Documentary Now's parody episode of it.

Yes, millennials, if you value music, you should know David Byrne. His book "How Music Works" is also excellent.

He wrote another interesting book about his travels and biking through different cities around the world, "Bicycle Diaries." Im sure many on this board would find it a good read as it talks about design, architecture and life in different places around the world.

He also has a ted talk about Architecture's influence on music. It's pretty interesting

He wrote another interesting book about his travels and biking through different cities around the world, "Bicycle Diaries." Im sure many on this board would find it a good read as it talks about design, architecture and life in different places around the world.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give this a read right away.

Funny, I was born in ‘67 and I’m incredibly conversant with the key artists and genre shifts of the ‘50s, 60s and early 70s. Good music is good music, and you’ll get better appreciation for the stuff that you love if you know where it came from.

I do think part of the problem here can be explained by the shift from radio to Internet-based listening. I personally like to explore and the Internet provides an incredible opportunity to discover new artists and new music (or at least new to you). But unlike radio it also allows you to completely wall yourself off from music you’re not interested in (or at least THINK you wouldn’t be interested in).

Artists like Talking Heads - while they became huge and mainstream during their own era - were not as exposed to the masses AFTER their prime in the same way that sixties era artists were. Meaning when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s I was exposed to classic rock era bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors - or even lesser-celebrated bands like Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Guess Who, Rare Earth, etc - whether I chose to be or not (I chose to be). If you listened to radio to hear the latest from Van Halen, you were also going to hear those bands.

I think eighties era bands probably suffer from the listening public’s ability to limit their own music exposure. It’s a shame, because that was also a pretty special time for music.

To be fair, I grew up on the radio in the '90s and I was exposed to a lot of bands. Again, I feel fairly well versed in a lot of music. Just not the Talking Heads. Having said that, maybe it's partly because I never really got into the punk scene. I explored most major 60s and 70s acts and grew up on 90s groups, but I never got into 80s music to the same degree. I've never been much for hair bands or punk. But, again, my larger point is that my friends and I constantly talked about music, went to lots of concerts, shared groups we liked from all eras from middle school through college, and I can't ever remember someone mentioning the Talking Heads. It's an interesting disconnect. I've certainly found this thread informative and I'll certainly review the links and suggestions provided.

Back to Critereon for a sec... they must be raking in the venue rental fees at least, there was a Herbalife convention in the venue this weekend and they packed the place (and the nearby springhill). I happened to be that way getting tours of the Steelyard floorplans and saw the swarms leaving with their "I heart Herbalife" stickers and other various swag.

To be fair, I grew up on the radio in the '90s and I was exposed to a lot of bands. Again, I feel fairly well versed in a lot of music. Just not the Talking Heads. Having said that, maybe it's partly because I never really got into the punk scene. I explored most major 60s and 70s acts and grew up on 90s groups, but I never got into 80s music to the same degree. I've never been much for hair bands or punk. But, again, my larger point is that my friends and I constantly talked about music, went to lots of concerts, shared groups we liked from all eras from middle school through college, and I can't ever remember someone mentioning the Talking Heads. It's an interesting disconnect. I've certainly found this thread informative and I'll certainly review the links and suggestions provided.
Yeah I was talking with someone about this owing to this discussion, and it occurred to us that many people who were listening to "alternative" radio in the 90s were getting something very different than the New Wave and alternative of the 80s. Meaning it was generally a mixture of yes, bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains, but mixed with bands like Creed, Bush, Filter, whatever. If you were listening to alternative in the 80s and before Grunge broke is was way more free-form and so alongside bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2 and REM you would also hear bands like Talking Heads, New Order, Erasure, 10,000 Maniacs and even acts like Lou Reed, Bowie, Kinks, Sade. It was much less homogeneous. Then money got in the way. And at least around here - ESPECIALLY around here I think - you had to choose between country, classic rock, or 95X style "alternative" which ignored everything that led up to that moment. So I get why people in OKC are light on this genre.

He wrote another interesting book about his travels and biking through different cities around the world, "Bicycle Diaries." Im sure many on this board would find it a good read as it talks about design, architecture and life in different places around the world.

I knew nothing about this until I visited NYC for the first time in 2010. I was staying in Midtown Manhattan and the streets around my hotel were surprisingly dead on the weekend. Since I couldn't grab coffee from a cart on Saturday I walked a few blocks to a Starbucks. So I'm walking down a pretty quiet Madison Avenue (if I recall) and I see a guy riding toward me on an upright bicycle with a basket on the front. And I'm thinking "man, that guy looks like David Byrne..." and then as he gets closer I'm thinking "uhh...he REALLY looks like David Byrne..." and then as he rides past I realize "THAT IS TOTALLY DAVID BYRNE." So I pulled out my phone and searched and found out that he is a huge cycling advocate, rides his bike pretty much everywhere (and has since the late 70s or early 80s), had recently written that book, and had also very recently personally commissioned artist-designed bike racks in NYC. It was a pretty cool celebrity sighting, and a very NYC one at that.

I'm sorry but I am not familiar with the term" tier one type stops". Looking at the first four shows I see Red Bank, NJ, Wilkes Barre, PA, Buffalo NY, and Hershey PA. To further claim that this is the most impressive concert booking in years in OKC, is somewhat of an overstatement with a bevy of posters saying "Who?". Again not downplaying the talent but c'mon now, no solo albums in 14 years and no touring in eight? Was Jerry Harrison not available ? Heck at least I know he is.

The fact that he almost never tours is part of what makes this a rare booking. An artist going out on the road like that for the first time in a long while usually bypasses OKC, especially since we have little established history with shows like that one. Again, it's not a taste thing, when I say it is one of the most impressive bookings here I mean that it is a very unlikely booking for OKC. Dropkick Murphy's apparently NEVER pass up a chance to play here, at least in the last few years. Not a tough get for the Diamond by any means, apparently.

I was born in 79 and my favorite music influencer is Buddy Holly lol

The fact that he almost never tours is part of what makes this a rare booking. An artist going out on the road like that for the first time in a long while usually bypasses OKC, especially since we have little established history with shows like that one. Again, it's not a taste thing, when I say it is one of the most impressive bookings here I mean that it is a very unlikely booking for OKC. Dropkick Murphy's apparently NEVER pass up a chance to play here, at least in the last few years. Not a tough get for the Diamond by any means, apparently.

Gotcha. I think we were talking past each other, but I get what you are saying.

Saw The Revolution there last night. First time in there for a concert. Other time was for Darci Lynne show. I thought the sound was great. Not a bad venue for concerts. So why is it they only have a couple events every month? You would think there would be something going on every weekend there? Is it not even a dance club on weekends?

Saw The Revolution there last night. First time in there for a concert. Other time was for Darci Lynne show. I thought the sound was great. Not a bad venue for concerts. So why is it they only have a couple events every month? You would think there would be something going on every weekend there? Is it not even a dance club on weekends?

Because the owner / operators have no money which is required to stage these shows.

Honestly, I'm surprised Live Nation hasn't pulled it's deal with them.

I was wondering about that also. Why isn't Live Nation putting acts there? How are they still in business with 3 events a month? No wonder mixed drink was $8 and a water was $4