An Evening With David Byrne! The multi-hyphenate artist returns to NYC for the second leg of his Who Is The Sky? world tour at Forest Hills Stadium on September 19th .
David Byrne is best known as the former lead singer and guitarist of the revolutionary rock band, Talking Heads. Forming in 1975 after meeting at RISD, the band went on to release eight albums (seven of which were certified gold or platinum) before they disbanded in 1991. Rising to prominence with an undeniably groovy post-punk and new wave sound, they went on to embrace an eclectic mix of musical styles from guitar pop to art rock to worldbeat, releasing hit songs including “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime,” “Once In a Lifetime,” “This Must Be the Place,” “Burning Down the House,” and many more. An incredibly tight and adventurous band fronted by Byrne with his oversized suits, mesmerizing dance moves, and wildly observant lyrics, Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Byrne launched his solo career before Talking Heads disbanded, collaborating with legendary ambient producer, Brian Eno (who produced for the band), on 1989’s My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, on which they made innovations in sampling, borrowing from radio broadcasts, field recordings, and electronics to add to their unconventional sound. Starting with 1989’s Rei Momo, Byrne built up an impressive catalog of solo albums that explored a wide range of sounds and styles from around the world, featuring horns, Afro-Cuban song styles, orchestral string arrangements, among others. Along the way he stacked up an array of collaborations, including albums with Selena, St. Vincent and more, and created a music label, Luaka Bop, which played a vital role in introducing Western audiences to innovative artists from South America and Africa.
Byrne has also made strides into other art forms including visual art, film, and musical theater, winning a Tony for the Broadway adaption of his 2019 album, American Utopia (part of larger multimedia project called Reasons to Be Cheerful), and a Grammy and Oscar for his work on 1987’s The Last Emperor.
In 2025, he released his latest album, Who Is The Sky?, recorded with Ghost Train Orchestra. The album equally embraces thematic and instrumental experimentation, featuring Mariachi brass, Hollywood-musical strings, Cuban clave, and a vocoder, as Byrne sings about a face cream turning him into a toddler on “Moisturizing Thing,” delivers a love song for his apartment on “My Apartment Is My Friend,” marvels at the vast knowledge of his wife on “She Explains Things to Me,” and much more. Despite all the album’s fascinating musical and thematic tangents, Byrne ties the work together with an unwavering sense of optimism and life-affirming joy that makes even the most specific of experiences feel universal. The tour for the album later that year was equally ambitious, as Byrne promised to blend “visual art, storytelling and music into one compelling live performance.” The result was a run of spectacularly cheerful and uplifting shows that utilized photographic and video backgrounds, wireless audio, and advanced real-time tracking technology to feature him and twelve other musicians sporting matching jumpsuits and carrying their own instruments (sometimes with harnesses) amidst complex choreography and philosophical musings on life. With this extremely unique and imaginative tour, Byrne continues to realize his wildly inventive and expansive artistic vision that pushes the boundaries of popular music performance and as The Guardian puts it, “will restore your faith in humanity,” cementing him as one of the pioneering and leading avant-garde musicians of the last fifty years.
Don’t miss David Byrne perform tracks from Who Is The Sky? and reimagined Talking Heads hits at Forest Hills Stadium on September 19th!
How to Get David Byrne Forest Hills Tickets
Tickets are available at Axs.com.
Location: Forest Hills
Address: 1 Tennis Pl, Forest Hills, NY 11375
Show Time: 6 p.m.
Doors Open: 5 p.m.
Ticket Price: $106-$1,883
Ages: All ages
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