Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour

Material

Byrne assembled a band to tour for the album, performing music throughout the latter half of 2008 and early 2009 across North America, Europe, and Australasia. He hired more singers than he had on previous tours to reproduce the complex vocal harmonies of the album and was inspired to bring along dancers after seeing Sufjan Stevens promote the album Illinois as well as the Japanese films Funky Forest and The Taste of Tea. Byrne was initially uninvolved in the choreography, but made more suggestions as the tour went on and after he saw a live performance by Deerhoof that incorporated dancing with instruments. He began booking tour dates before the album was completed and continued writing his book The Bicycle Diaries throughout the tour.

In planning the set lists for the tour, Byrne initially considered only promoting this album, but decided to assemble songs this album as well as their previous collaborations, including the Talking Heads albums More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light and Byrne's The Catherine Wheel soundtrack. By playing music from all of their collaborations, Byrne hoped to "draw a line linking this new material with what we did 30 years ago" with the goal of clarifying the connection between all of the duo's previous work. In reviewing the music, he found that "[t]here might be more continuity than I imagined, which I hope is going to work in my favor." Although he was invited to participate and early reports indicated that would, Eno chose to not tour, letting Byrne decide how to present this music live.

A month after releasing the album, Byrne was skeptical of market saturation, claiming "I sense that a lot of people don't know we have a record out" and hoped to counterbalance that ignorance with this tour. At the same time, the main goal of the performance was not promotion but the show itself.

Set lists

The set list for the first night:

Set

"Strange Overtones" (originally from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"I Zimbra" (Fear of Music)

"One Fine Day" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"Help Me Somebody" (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)

"Houses in Motion" (Remain in Light)

"My Big Nurse" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)" (The Catherine Wheel)

"Heaven" (Fear of Music)

"Home" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"The River" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"Crosseyed and Painless" (Remain in Light)

"Life Is Long" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

"Once In a Lifetime" (Remain in Light)

"Life During Wartime" (Fear of Music)

"I Feel My Stuff" (Everything That Happens Will Happen Today)

Encore

"Take Me to the River" (More Songs About Buildings and Food)

Musicians and technical personnel

Performers

Byrne has assembled the following musicians and dancers to accompany him:

David Byrne – voice and guitar

Mark De Gli Antoni – keyboards

Paul Frazier – bass guitar

Graham Hawthorne – drums

Mauro Refosco – percussion

Redray Frazier – background vocals

Kaïssa – background vocals

Jenni Muldaur – background vocals

Lily Baldwin – dancing

Natalie Kuhn – dancing

Steven Reker – dancing

Refosco previously toured with Byrne's My Backwards Life band in support of Grown Backwards; like bassist Paul Frazier he also appears on Look into the Eyeball, Grown Backwards, Live from Austin, Texas, and Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The performers started rehearsals the day that the album was released and continued to rehearse more for this tour than is typical for other Byrne presentations. All performers dress alike in cream-colored jumpsuits and overalls. The dancers have choreographed for seven songs and the entire ensemble performed together for the first time on September 9.

Technical crew

Mark Edwards – production manager

Keith Anderson – tour manager

Bruce Knight – Front of House

Mike Lafferty – stage and keyboard technician

Victor Muñoz – guitar technician

Don FitzSimmonds – drum technician

Jeremy Bolton and Michael Conners – PA technicians

Bob Lewis – monitors

Jon Pollak – lighting designer/director

Martin Garnish – lighting

Abi Lester – wardrobe

The equipment was engineered by Clair Global and included gear from Lab.gruppen, TC Electronic, and Yamaha.

Choreographers

Noémie Lafrance

Annie-B Parson

Sonya Robbins and Layla Childs aka Robbinschilds Dance

Supporting acts

There were only a handful of dates that included other performers and no opening act was scheduled throughout the tour. Ani DiFranco opened on June 2, 2009, and Byrne played a double bill with Marianne Faithfull opening on July 30, 2009. The Extra Action Marching Band guested on "Burning Down the House" and "Road to Nowhere" on the October 7, 2008, and June 23, 24, and 26, 2009, dates. DeVotchka opened on some 2009 dates.

Tour dates

The tour was expected to run six months into spring 2009, including dates in Australia and Europe before finally concluding after 11 months with five legs worldwide:

†Date scheduled and later canceled

Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour

Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno is a 2009 live EP released by David Byrne recorded during the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour. The album is composed of live recordings of three songs from the 2009 Byrne/Eno collaboration Everything That Happens Will Happen Today and one—"Help Me Somebody"—from their 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

Recording and release

Byrne was approached by Amnesty International to get involved in his tour. For years, Byrne had performed one date on his tours as a benefit and decided to record this EP with proceeds from sales benefiting the organization.

Byrne's band performed with an audio system that could professionally record every show based around Pro Tools. Byrne had these recordings mixed by Patrick Dillett—who was also responsible for engineering on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

The album was made available digitally in the form of DRM-free 320 kbit/s MP3s with the option of a FLAC as well. Like Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the EP was marketed with Internet startup Topspin Media.

The album received a positive review from The Village Voice, calling it "cheerful" and "lovely."

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne and Brian Eno; "Strange Overtones" co-written by Leo Abrahams.

"Strange Overtones" – 4:37

"Help Me Somebody" – 3:28

"One Fine Day" – 4:34

"I Feel My Stuff" – 6:29

Personnel

David Byrne – vocals and guitar

Mark De Gli Antoni – keyboards

Paul Frazier – bass guitar

Redray Frazier – background vocals

Graham Hawthorne – drums

Kaïssa – background vocals

Jenni Muldaur – background vocals

Mauro Refosco – percussion

Ride, Rise, Roar

On February 11, 2010, it was announced that a documentary film entitled Ride, Rise, Roar chronicling the tour would be released to the 2010 film festival circuit. The debut will be at South by Southwest on March 15, 2010, where it will be screened in all three media categories—film, interactive, and music. The film was the feature-length directorial debut by Hillman Curtis—who also worked on the short film that accompanies the deluxe edition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The film includes concert footage, footage of the planning and rehearsals for the tour, and exclusive interviews with Byrne, Eno, and the supporting musicians and dancers. Curtis was initially contacted to document the tour with no clear objective for the film and decided to focus on the collaboration between Byrne and his tour mates as well as the unique challenge of combining popular music with modern dance.

Stalking incident

While on tour, dancer Lily Baldwin started receiving letters from a stalker following the show in Europe. She turned her experience into the 2017 film Glass and began a website offering resources for those who are being stalked.