David Byrne’s Coachella Performance Is Essential Viewing

Last autumn, when David Byrne came to Radio City Music Hall on his Who Is the Sky? Tour, I witnessed a performance so good that I, to put it inelegantly, felt like I was smacked in the face by a fish for several minutes after experiencing it. Alongside his crew of untethered musicians and dancers, Byrne presented “Life During Wartime” — a song released for Talking Heads’ 1979 album Fear of Music that continues to have relevance for obvious reasons — as an artistic, theatrical movement of sorts, complete with footage of ICE agents tripping over themselves while failing to capture a bicyclist. (When I asked Byrne how he would characterize what he’s doing onstage every night, he laughed and responded, “Friends attempt to describe it to me, but I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to describe it myself.”) I’ve been hoping some sort of official video would be released since then, and luckily it has. This “Life During Wartime” didn’t take place at the Mudd Club or CBGB, but rather during Byrne’s Coachella set this past weekend, where you can see the full scope of what this 73-year-old can do in an orange jumpsuit. “I honestly don’t know where I go from here,” Byrne also told me in our conversation. You’ll understand what he means after watching.