A warning to all three of you who read this stuff I write (probably two now, because the one guy who thinks I use Google to reference basic historical facts likely has tired of my scrawlings): what follows might come as a direct contradiction to a piece I wrote last year in this same space.
I wrote about how the coming reunions of bands like Acid Bath and Cross Canadian Ragweed signaled something good on the horizon, and yes, even though they’re not my cup of ale, Oasis and Creed also got mentioned in that column.
One band that will likely never return to the stage (at least to play music) is the Talking Heads, and I’m not really that mad about it.
Following the quartet’s acrimonious 1991 breakup, it took until 2023 for them to come back together to work as an entity to re-release albums, do the talk show circuit and to tour for screenings of their classic 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense. However, what fans really wanted was a tour, or at least an appearance at Coachella, or just some sort of shindig where the four of them were on a stage with their respective instruments, playing music, you know, “burning down the house.”
Again, the idea coming from my soapbox that a band should not reunite to play live seems to spit in the face of things I’ve written about the aforementioned greats, as well as the mighty Jawbreaker, another favorite band that seemed terribly unlikely to reunite, but did several years ago. Talking Heads are an exception to this.
Last week, online media sources were abuzz with the idea that the New York City-spawned quartet would be performing live at some point. A cryptic post on the band’s Instagram with the date “June 5, 2025” set to the famously ominous bassline of “Psycho Killer” set imaginations ablaze, but the big reveal was that the band released a proper music video for the song, starring Saoirse Ronan.
The video reveals a manic existence for Ronan’s character, who is seemingly going about a normal day, but at an exceedingly manic pace.
“Psycho Killer”’s cinematic debut came in time to celebrate the Talking Heads’ 50th anniversary, and will be accompanied by a proper re-release of the band’s first couple of albums, and I’m sure at some point in the near future, the four of them will again make the rounds of late-night talk shows and whatnot.
Here’s the deal with the Talking Heads: David Byrne, the famously eccentric frontman and wearer of that really, really big suit in the Stop Making Sense movie, has long poo-poohed any talk of a reunion. Who knows what all went down between Byrne and his bandmates? All we the public have are the records full of those great songs, and some of us who are old enough to remember and lucky enough to see them live, have those memories.
When musicians bury hatchets and get along well enough to go through the grueling paces of putting on performances, that’s one thing. As a sidenote: bookmakers are taking bets on whether or not that Oasis trainwreck will last even three shows into that band’s reunion tour, but I digress.
If the four members of the Talking Heads are getting along well enough to collaborate on marketing, music videos, album reissues and film screenings, why should we, the public, expect a further compounding and complication of that relationship with the rigors of touring, or even one-off performances?
Reportedly, the band turned down around $80 million last year to do Coachella and a string of six or seven shows as a headliner. If a band leaves that kind of money on the table, then the members know their limitations.
Then again, it could also be that the members feel they’re too out-of-practice to play those songs live again. Aside from a three-song set at the 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the Heads have not performed live since 1985.
Who are we to impose our desires on people who are unwilling to do that thing we desire? Put yourself in their shoes: would you want to be stuck on a tour bus or onstage with someone whom you did not want to be around?
Then again, there’s also the aspect of how a Talking Heads show would be received in this day and age. Fans, like myself, who love the band for the songs and the blending of different musical idioms, would enjoy the performance and treasure it, but a whole new generation that wears the T-shirts, but doesn’t know the music, would spend the whole show on their phones taking selfies, which flies in the face of what the Heads’ concert experiences were said to bring to audiences.
Absent the live, extremely immersive experience of a Talking Heads show, I’ll stick to spinning my copy of Remain in Light. Same as it ever was…same as it ever was.
