Classic Review #47: Stop Making Sense

In selected cinemas

Jonathan Demme’s feted documentation of Talking Heads performing in their halcyonian heyday (otherwise known as 1984) remains as exhilarating today as it doubtlessly was back then, an immersive insight into the seldom-seen creativity of the band and in particular its leading man David Byrne.

Shot over four nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, Stop Making Sense is a true passion project, with the show conceived by Byrne and the film’s modest $1.2m budget raised by the band themselves. Such enthusiasm to adequately express one’s artistic impulses is certainly evident in the final product, with tremendous energy demonstrated throughout, be it through gleeful smiles or, in Bryne’s case, frequent laps around the stage.

Aside from Demme’s technical excellence as a director (which was later conveyed in films as stellar as Philadelphia and Silence of the Lambs), perhaps the biggest takeaways from this most welcome re-release is Talking Heads’ enormous influence on contemporary guitar music, with the concert’s stage setting evoking memories of acclaimed acts such as Arcade Fire, and Byrne’s spasmodic stage presence clearly resembling that of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

Above all else though, the band’s commitment to their audience and craft serves as a joyous antithesis to the dreary self-importance of many bands of a similar stature, reminding us that there’s never any excuse not to give your audience a good time. Although, with belters such as Psycho Killer, Burning Down the House, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), and Once in a Lifetime in your arsenal, how could you not?