David Byrne brings ‘Heaven’ to Boston

David Byrne is standing on the moon looking at earth Byrne has just finished crooning a tender string-driven version of Talking Heads Heaven The massive video screen behind him at the Wang Theatre makes the earth look beautiful and delicate There she is Byrne tells the packed house Our heaven Over three nights at the Wang Byrne and his backing ensemble of a dozen dancers and musicians carried the audience through the -year-old icon s vision of the world optimism with a dose of realism buoyant pop music shot through with influences from the avant-garde and a tally of genres from across the globe Like Byrne s - American Utopia tour or Broadway show the trek supporting new album Who Is the Sky features a group unburdened by wires amps and pedals The stage is clean with the guitarist bassist a handful of percussionists and the rest using wireless instruments and microphones so they can roam freely Only they don t roam freely Meticulously choreographed by Steven Hoggett the Who Is the Sky show has the whole ensemble dancing spinning marching twisting and turning along with rotating images on -foot-tall high-def screens everything bolstering the songs messages A few of those messages can be a little childlike Consistently conceptual and yet visceral Byrne has written an album of songs about simple pleasures and pains see Friday night s versions of Everybody Laughs I Met The Buddha At A Downtown Party My Apartment Is My Friend But he curated his back catalog to find the right material to reinforce or undercut the new songs And She Was This Must Be the Place Naive Melody and even his existential masterpiece Once in a Lifetime pushed Byrne s current ethos of hope wonder and unity To make sure it wasn t all flowers and homey thoughts the tight relentless and pulsating rhythms crashed in with several menace on Houses in Motion and Slippery People and had a tense fury The biggest contrast with the dominant optimism of the night the communal spirit came late in the show with Life During Wartime Dressed in matching blue suits for the night Bryne and the troupe became almost swallowed up in a wall of blue on the screens But as the dark song drove on the blue shattered into ugly images of modernity boiling political rallies police brutality war chaos To open the encore Byrne came to the stage alone and explained a breakthrough he had as the pandemic came to an end Riding his bike around New York City he discovered people were walking and talking and interacting again No matter how bad things get no matter how close we are to the life depicted in Life During Wartime people love being together he noted Then Byrne and band jumped into a joyous gospel version of American Utopia tune Everybody s Coming To My House and a huge singalong in Burning Down the House Byrne believes that Heaven is district and he wants the audience to feel that if just for a night