The Talking Heads’ film ‘Stop Making Sense’ premiered 28 years ago today

• Tweet
• Pin It

On April 24th, 1984 Stop Making Sense , the revolutionary concert film that brought us the ‘big suit’ and 88 minutes of fun premiered at The San Francisco International Film Festival. Here’s a quote from the SFIFF on the premier:

The lights dimmed and the four-track digital stereo sound (the first time ever used on film) filled the theater, but “no one anticipated the pandemonium that would break out when the Heads traipsed onscreen,” Glenn Lovell wrote in the San Jose Mercury News. “Within 15 minutes, hundreds of fans were charging down the aisle to get as close as possible to the jumping, marching, stumbling, twitching screen image of the man of the hour: lead singer David Byrne. (The real Byrne—a skinny, painfully shy guy—went basically unnoticed in the audience).”

I love that note about David Byrne. If you live in NYC you may have seen him riding his bike, inconspicuously riding the subway, or quitely standing in the back of a show (I’ve spotted him at Sufjan and Local Natives shows myself). If you are really lucky you’ve seen him performing a solo show, or joining acts like Paul Simon on stage as a surprise.

Stop Making Sense remains one of the greatest concert films of all time. Thankfully in this modern day you can get it on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Here’s This Must Be The Place and Girlfriend Is Better from the film:

– Josh Morrissey is on twitter: Follow Josh Morrissey on twitter

• Tweet
• Pin It