Stop Making Sense (1984)

4 November 2020

Music concerts are difficult to review, since they don't usually have a narrative or really a lot of depth to them - they go from song to song and are usually a set of hits from the band at the moment.

With this work, Talking Heads creates the first film using entirely digital audio techniques. It also had a lot of craft built into it, produced by Talking Heads and released independently. In this, the band goes through the majority of their hits: starting with a barebones Psycho Killer, and adding to the band as they go through Fear of Music and Remain in Light. The tour was supporting Speaking in Tongues, and the first song with the complete group was Burning Down the House.

It's less of a documentary than the filming of a concert, setting a bar to how a lot of concerts are produced and crafted today. It captured a majority of their hits (and a few others which made it on the special edition of this film, but I didn't see here). Filming and cinematography were really clearly planned and experimented with - my only qualm is near the end with the overemphasized lighting in Girlfriend is Better, but that was more because it was really dark compared to the rest of the film.

Highly recommended, especially if you like Talking Heads. They split with a lot of bitterness and Byrne left in 1991, and aren't likely to reunite. So this is the closest you'll get to seeing them live. 9/10

5 September 2014

Tonight watched Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense". It was the band in their heyday, but looking back at it you can see the divide between Byrne and the rest of the band. It was cool to see it in a theater too, with the audience clapping along or applauding.

opener: Psycho Killer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM9SHDNAbPw 10/10