The set list was perfectly crafted, starting with a few songs from the new album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, easing into the crowd favorites with “Heaven” before bringing them to their feet with the unassailable (expect through sarcasm on this blog) “Once in a Lifetime”. “Burning Down the the House” followed “The Great Curve” (my personal favorite) as the final crowd favorites in the what I believe was the 4 encore section of the show. At that point, still in his tutu I believe, Byrne gently and lovingly brought the crowd down to earth and gave us a soft push out the door into the world again with the hypnotically simple title track from the new album.

The most intriguing part of the show, however, were the interpretative dancers in white. They backed up the music and the more talented ones got a couple soloes in there. Honestly, I’m not sure how to interpret them. I began that sentence with ‘Honestly’ because I had no intention of being ironic. The dancers definitely added to the show. They were/are probably better received in other parts of the country where people actually DANCE at rock concerts. (Mid-atlantic-ers and north easterners don’t know how to use their hips for some reason – something I spend a lot of alone time working on….yeah) Byrne may be on to something by adding dance to rock shows. He is proven to be an innovative amalgamator – Remain in the Light fuses a lot of disparate influences. I can see interpretative dance bring the raw sexuality back to rock’n'roll.

“The world moves on a womans hips
The world moves and it swivels and bops
The world moves on a womans hips
The world moves and it bounces and hops”

Song: The Great Curve,
Album: Remain in the Light
Talking Heads

Pollock conceived One: Number 31 with no thought to the linear, which includes ideas that drive the art investment market. It is a clear expression of his right brain. Conservative iron workers in the Bible belt understand the right brain just as much the rest of us and yet they aren’t included or even accepted in the modern art community. They may not want to understand, but have they been given the chance?

With music and art programs being cut across the country especially with the recession forcing state and local governments to make hard choices, I fear that these under-engaged demographics will lose all chance to understand the intrinsic spirituality and interconnectedness of modern art.

That view strikes me as fatalistic. Maybe economic hardship and global terrorism can bring us together in an organic way and inspire a new generation of expressionist art.