David Byrne - Glasgow
I arrived at the venue around 7:20pm and could see the queue snaking round the side of The Armadillo like a snake curling round an animal before it eats it. Could that animal be an armadillo? I am not sure as I have never seen a snake eat an armadillo and they have a tough outer shell which may protect them from snakes. The size of the queue made it apparent that a lot of people had heard about this gig. As the queue moved steadily inside I was met with even more queues. A short queue forming at the merch table and a longer queue emerging from the toilets. One man in a Scotland rugby top exclaimed upon joining the latter “I’ve been in a fucking queue all day!”. He did not seem impressed.
I on the other hand was quite impressed. Having never been inside The Armadillo I was not sure what to expect but, upon climbing to the 4th floor where the gallery is situated, I was pleased to see a vast selection of seats in a pleasing blue upholstery. Standing at gigs is not much fun these days. We navigated down a few more stairs to row C where we couldn’t find our seats at first because people were occupying them. We swiftly expelled these deviants to other seats, claimed what was rightfully ours and waited for the performance to begin. While waiting I gazed down at what looked like the surface of the moon being projected on the floor of the stage. From how high up we were in the gallery I felt like I could have actually been on the moon, gazing down to the tiny speck of a stage below.
At 8:15pm the lights dimmed and a familiar voice emerged from the sound system. It was David Byrne himself. He told us that we should be in the moment and keep photography to a minimum which was more lenient than the signs in the foyer stating that filming and photography was STRICTLY PROHIBITED. It did make things a bit confusing though as we now had two different instructions regarding photography. Audio recording was a strict no no. He also informed us that dancing was allowed as long as we didn’t dance in the aisles as these needed to be kept clear in case a fire broke out and people needed to get out. This got a large chuckle from the audience which was probably made up of lots of small chuckles happening at the same time although I bet that laughter would stop pretty swiftly if a fire did actually start during the gig. I hoped this would not happen as there were a lot of stairs between where I was and safety and I would probably get trampled in the stampede that ensued.
A few moments after this announcement some people walked onto the stage that resembled the moon and started the concert with the first song. As good a place as any to start. The projections and visuals on the stage changed as the show progressed making for an extra element of interest in the proceedings. The second and third songs followed the first consecutively along with several other songs that made up the full concert. Some songs from his new album and a selection of Talking Heads classics. The well known songs got the audience up out their seats and dancing (which was allowed) although one woman in the front row of the gallery was up at several songs and proceeded to block the view of those behind her. At least she enjoyed herself though.
After the last song the concert finished and the lights went up. This signalled that it was time to leave and so we did. It was a good job we were at the end of a row as we were able to swiftly vacate the gallery and enter a fast filling elevator which took us to the ground floor foyer and the familiar sight of the merch table. A short walk past this took us out into the cool night air where we could discuss all that we had seen and heard. It was good.