Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison and the band’s longtime touring guitarist Adrian Belew are teaming up for tour next year centered around material from Talking Heads’ classic 1980 album Remain in Light. The musicians will be augmented by a nine-piece band including former members of Turkuaz.
Harrison and Belew tested out the concept during a summer 2021 performance at the Peach Music Festival in Scranton, Pa., which was Harrison’s first live performance in 25 years. Last month, the musicians regrouped for another Remain in Light show at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theater.
“Remain In Light is a high point in my career,” Harrison says. “Adrian and I had often discussed the magic of the 1980 tour and the sheer joy it brought to audiences. It is such a delight to see that joy once again in the audiences on the current tour.” Adds Belew, “a joyful show of Talking Heads songs you know and love performed by a hot, eleven-piece ensemble including Jerry and me. You can’t help but dance and go home with a happy smile on your face.”
The tour begins Feb. 16 in Denver and runs through March 11 in New Haven, Ct. Tickets go on sale Friday (Nov. 4) and can be purchased here.
Produced by Brian Eno, Remain in Light found Talking Heads expanding their sound to incorporate Afrobeat rhythms and electronic elements, with Belew contributing to a number of its songs in the studio. The album is best known for the single “Once in a Lifetime” but also includes standouts such as “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” and “Crosseyed and Painless.”
Talking Heads officially split in 1991, and the original lineup of frontman David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Frantz, and Harrison has only performed once since then, at the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002.
Here are the Remain in Light tour dates:
Feb. 16: Denver (Ogden Theatre)
Feb. 17: Boulder, Colo. (Boulder Theater)
Feb. 18: Beaver Creek, Colo. (Vilar PAC)
Feb. 21: Oklahoma City, Okla. (Tower Theatre)
Feb. 22: St. Louis (The Factory)
Feb. 24: Minneapolis (First Avenue)
Feb. 25: Chicago (Vic Theatre)
Feb. 26: Indianapolis (Murat Egyptian Room)
Feb. 27: Akron, Ohio (Goodyear Theater)
Feb. 28: Buffalo, N.Y. (Town Ballroom)
March 2: Toronto (Danforth Music Hall)
March 3: Pittsburgh (Roxian Theatre)
March 4: Baltimore (Rams Head Live!)
March 5: Sayreville, N.J. (Starland Ballroom)
March 7: Philadelphia (Keswick Theatre)
March 8: Albany, N.Y. (Empire Live)
March 9: New York (Sony Hall)
March 10: Boston (House of Blues)
March 11: New Haven, Ct. (College Street Music Hall)
