Original Talking Heads keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison and touring guitarist Adrian Belew have announced a Remain in Light celebration concert at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, where the musicians will perform music from the 1980 album and discuss Talking Heads’ legacy. The event is slated for September 29th.
Harrison and Belew will begin the event with a conversation with Tawny Newsome, an actress and musician who once toured in a Talking Heads tribute band. After chatting about the band’s origins and legacy, the artists will perform cuts from Remain in Light alongside bassist Julie Slick and percussionist Yahuba Garcia-Torres.
Tickets to the event hit Ticketmaster on Friday, July 15th at 1:00 p.m. ET, and VIP packages are available. For pre-sale beginning Wednesday, July 13th (use code ELECTRIC).
Harrison explained how the Remain in Light celebration show came about in a statement. “Belew came here [to San Francisco], and we got into talking about how the touring band for Remain in Light was so special,” he said. “I think the album is wonderful, but we took it up a notch when we did live performances. It was sort of a different feel than the Stop Making Sense band, which is sort of captured in that Rome 1980. I’m really excited to be doing that again. You could really feel the energy and excitement, and there are so many talented musicians on stage.”
Belew, who toured with Talking Heads from 1980 to 1981, added: “Jerry and I had talked for several years about the rare joy of the very popular 1980 Live In Rome video on YouTube. We both felt it was something audiences would love to experience now. The show we’ve put together is everything we hoped for and more. An awesome group of players and singers faithfully and lovingly reliving the music of an historic time: The Talking Heads’ Remain In Light. You cannot leave this concert anything less than exhilarated and dancing happily out the door!”
Later this fall, Belew will celebrate another iconic artist in David Bowie, as he’ll partake in the “Celebrating David Bowie” tribute tour coming to North America. Tickets to that are on sale now via Ticketmaster. Meanwhile, you can prepare for the Remain In Light show by revisiting our feature on Talking Head in 10 Songs.
